The agreement, signed on April 30, establishes a joint investment fund between Kyiv and Washington and grants the U.S. special access to projects developing Ukraine's natural resources.
Ukraine is considering moving away from the U.S. dollar and closer to the euro as a benchmark for the hryvnia, National Bank Governor Andrii Pyshnyi told Reuters.
The Atesh partisan group claims it disabled communication at several Russian military facilities when it allegedly destroyed equipment at a transformer substation in the village of Mogiltsy in Russia's Moscow Oblast.
A screenshot from a video released by Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin's press service on June 24 in which he claimed they had taken control of all military sites in the southern Russian city of Rostov.
Check out our LIVE UPDATES on the Wagner Group’s armed rebellion in Russia.
The outcome of the Wagner mercenary group’s armed rebellion will partly depend on the Russian National Guard and other security forces’ loyalty to the state, the U.K. Defense Ministry wrote in its intelligence update on June 24.
Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin initiated what he called a "march for justice" against the Russian military leadership following his claim on June 23 that they had targeted his mercenary forces in Ukraine with a devastating missile strike, resulting in significant casualties.
Shortly before 8 a.m. local time on June 24, Prigozhin’s press service published a video online in which he claimed that all military sites in the southern Russian city of Rostov were under Wagner's control, including the airfield.
In a five-minute video address released on June 24, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said that any infighting that undermines "the unity of Russia" at such a time is "essentially treachery."
Although he did not reference him by name, Putin said the infighting between Prigozhin and the Russian military leadership was a "deadly threat" to Russian statehood, adding that "actions to defend against such a threat will be severe."
Tensions between Prigozhin and the Russian military leadership have been steadily escalating for months, with Prigozhin publicly expressing frustration over inadequate weapons and logistical support for his troops during the 10-month battle for Bakhmut.
According to the U.K. Defense Ministry, the unfolding events “represent the most significant challenge to the Russian state in recent times.”
Wagner units moving through Russia’s Voronezh Oblast are “almost certainly aiming to get to Moscow,” the ministry wrote.
Given that there is little recorded evidence of clashes between Wagner and Russian security forces, some of the latter have “likely remained passive, acquiescing to Wagner,” the ministry added.
Kate Tsurkan is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent who writes mostly about culture-related topics in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Her newsletter Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan, which focuses specifically on Ukrainian culture, is published weekly by the Kyiv Independent. The U.S. publisher Deep Vellum published her co-translation of Ukrainian author Oleh Sentsov’s Diary of a Hunger Striker in 2024. Some of her other writing and translations have appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Harpers, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She is the co-founder of Apofenie Magazine.
Kate Tsurkan
