Wagner

The mercenary leader who led a short-lived mutiny against the Kremlin is in Russia and his troops are in their field camps, the president of Belarus said Thursday, raising new questions about the deal that ended the extraordinary challenge to President Vladimir Putin's rule.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is the absolute number one news today. First, because the Belarusian president announced that the founder Wagner had returned to Russia, and then because of the raid.
Namely, the Russian state television published, as it stated, exclusive footage of the raid carried out in the buildings owned by Prigozhin.

He announced on his Telegram channel that Ukrainian forces are advancing in the area north of Bakhmut and that Russian troops have urgently gone to that area.

The Washington Post reports, citing a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity, that US intelligence agencies discovered in mid-June that Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning some sort of armed attack, but that information was not discussed in meetings with Ukrainian officials, President Volodymyr Zelensky and others.

Russia's war in Ukraine has had a "corrosive" effect on Russian President Vladimir Putin, CIA Director William Burns said Saturday, with discontent over the conflict creating a "once-in-a generation opportunity" for the spy agency.

Day 492 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

The EU's top diplomat warned Thursday that a "weaker" Russian President Vladimir Putin would pose a "greater danger" after Wagner's aborted mutiny sparked the largest political crisis in decades in the nuclear-armed country.

"A weaker Putin is a greater danger. So we have to be very much aware of the consequences," Josep Borrell said ahead of a gathering of EU leaders in Brussels.

Day 490 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

Belarus welcomed the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin into exile on Tuesday following an aborted rebellion, as NATO warned it was ready to defend against "Moscow or Minsk".

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on a restaurant in eastern Ukraine rose to eight on Wednesday, as Kiev played down the effect of a brief mutiny by the head of the Wagner mercenary group on the conflict.