Three were injured in Russia's Kursk Oblast when the town of Rylsk was allegedly struck by a missile attack on May 11, local governor Alexander Khinshtein claimed.
This week, the world watched in anticipation for Russia’s Victory Day parade after President Volodymyr Zelensky commented that he could not guarantee the safety of those attending. Meanwhile, the European Union moves one step forward to banning Russian gas from the European continent. It is also revealed this week that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fallen out of step with the White House.
"(Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin... doesn't want to have a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the bloodbath. Ukraine should agree to this, immediately," U.S. President Donald Trump said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to to Antalya, Turkey, for a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting from May 14–16, where he is expected to address the war in Ukraine and push for stronger Allied defense commitments.
The Kremlin said the leaders held a detailed discussion about the Russian initiative and Erdogan expressed full support, reiterating Turkey’s readiness to provide a venue and assist in organizing the negotiations.
Erdogan told Macron that international cooperation is critical for initiating peace negotiations and the "sensitive implementation" of Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction processes, the Turkish Presidency reported.
The assault began around 2 a.m. on May 11, with Russian forces deploying 108 Shahed-type attack drones and decoy UAVs from multiple directions, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
A screen grab captured from a video shows Sergei Surovikin addressing the Wagner PMC leadership, commanders and soldiers on June 24, 2023. (Photo credit: Russian Defense Ministry/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Russian General Sergei Surovikin was interrogated by military prosecutors over his links to the Wagner Group's founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, Bloomberg reported on June 29, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.
According to the news outlet, Surovikin was interrogated over several days and is being kept in one place but not in prison.
Less than an hour later, the Russian independent investigative group IStories also wrote that Surovikin was questioned by the authorities but claimed that he was subsequently released.
IStories' sources in the security services and the military did not confirm Surovikin's arrest and said he was not held in Lefortovo Prison, despite earlier claims on social media.
The Russian military blogger Vladimir Romanov first spread the rumors of Surovikin's arrest on June 25, claiming he was in pre-trial detention in Moscow's Lefortovo Prison.
The Moscow Times and the Financial Times reported earlier that the former top general in Ukraine had been detained by Russian authorities over his alleged support for the Wagner Group's rebellion.
On June 28, The New York Times wrote that Surovikin was aware of Prigozhin's rebellion in advance. CNN later reported that other figures in the Russian military and intelligence cadres may have been aware of the upcoming uprising and chose not to interfere.
The Wagner Group's founder launched an armed rebellion against the Russian government on June 23. His mercenaries occupied the city of Rostov and marched to within 200 km of Moscow, only to abruptly end the insurrection less than 24 hours later, on June 24.
After a deal between the Kremlin and Prigozhin, allegedly brokered by Belarus' dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko, Russian officials said that the Wagner founder and his contract soldiers would be allowed to leave for Belarus.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Francis Farrell
