TWELVE children and babies were among the 38 civilians wounded in a Russian missile strike that hit an apartment block in northeastern Ukraine today.
The hypersonic wave of missiles allegedly targeted a soldier's funeral in the Kharkiv region where around 100 people had gathered to pay their respects, an army official said.
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The high-rise apartment block was ablaze after the missile strike that left 38 woundedCredit: Twitter
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An army official claimed that the strike targeted a funeral of a soldierCredit: Getty
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Twelve children including three babies were reportedly wounded in the blastCredit: Getty
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The missile hit a parking lot near a multi-story building in a residential neighbourhoodCredit: Getty
Television footage captured the brutal aftermath of the strike as a huge fire engulfed the shattered high-rise building in the small town of Pervomaiskyi.
Emergency service workers were seen rushing towards the tall building with its smashed exterior as heavy plumes of black smoke poured out.
Mangled cars were in flames nearby and a man sat in an ambulance with blood over his face as the wounded were quickly bandaged up at the scene.
Regional governor Oleh Synehubov said an "Iskander" missile had slammed into a residential quarter of Pervomaiskyi at 1.35p.m.
"We weren't at home, we went for a walk in the park. I don't know what happened, I heard an explosion, probably a missile," local resident Alla said on the street as she hugged her granddaughter.
"I only remember that when the explosion sounded, we were thrown up into the air. Then we continued walking, we saw blown out windows everywhere, I saw cars on fire.
"I just can't get a grip of myself, my legs are still shaking."
Prosecutors said the youngest of the 38 people hurt in the attack was a child of three months. The child's condition is currently not known.
Two other babies - aged 10 months and one year - were also said to have been wounded.
About 100 people were gathering at a funeral near the Palace of Culture in Pervomaiskyi, some of them in uniform and some in civilian clothes.
Major Maksym Zhorin, a former commander of in the Azov battalion, said the town was hit at the beginning of the funeral of Oleh Fadeenko.
The fallen soldier, who had the call-sign "Baby", had been killed in combat near the ruined and besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
"They targeted the site where the ceremony was taking place," Zhorin claimed on the Telegram.
Russia did not immediately comment on the attack.
Moscow has relentlessly denied deliberately targeting civilians but its missile and drone attacks have repeatedly struck cities across Ukraine since the start of the invasion.
Dramatic footage shows thick black smoke billowing in the air after the strike at the key Kubinka military air base, some 48 miles southwest of the Kremlin.
The strike prompted Russian authorities to briefly close one of the city's main airports, although they claim to have foiled the attack.
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Cars continued to burn following the missile strikesCredit: Getty
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The nearby blast shattered homes in the small northeastern Ukrainian townCredit: Getty
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Smouldering cars in the aftermath of the aggressive strikeCredit: Reuters
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Emergency workers and locals rescuing the civilians who were hit in the strikeCredit: Getty
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The wounded civilians being taken to hospitalCredit: Getty
ROME, July 4 (Reuters) - Italy has frozen Russian oligarchs' assets valued at around 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) following the invasion of Ukraine last year, the country's central bank said on Tuesday.
Italy seized assets -- including bank accounts, luxury villas, yachts and cars -- as part of the European Union's sanctions against the Kremlin and its backers.
In its annual report, the Bank of Italy's anti-money laundering unit (UIF) said the 2-billion-euro figure had been updated to the end of June.
UIF Director Enzo Serata added that financial holdings worth around 330 million euros, linked to 80 individuals, had been frozen as part of the sanctions regime.
Before the war began in February 2022, Italy's beaches and ports were a popular playground for wealthy Russians who bought properties in prime locations such as Lake Como, Sardinia, Tuscany and the Ligurian coast.
Some of the oligarchs targeted by the measures have filed legal appeals, including Russian-Uzbek metals and telecoms tycoon Alisher Usmanov.
In April, an Italian court referred to the EU Court of Justice a decision on whether to maintain a freeze on his assets, worth more than 80 million euros.
($1 = 0.9178 euros)
Reporting by Alvise Armellini Editing by Keith Weir
Yevgeny Pisarenko, the commander of Akhmat, a Chechen armed formation that is fighting on the Russian side, has been killed in combat in Donbas.
Source: Russian Kremlin-aligned media RBC, citing Apta Alaudinov, Pisarenko's successor
Details: In his statement, Alaudinov thanked the deceased fighter’s parents for "raising such a hero".
Dmitry Kulko, a Russian war correspondent, also reported the death of Pisarenko, aka Velikii ("The Great"), on his Telegram channel.
"Velikii (The Great) was a fellow countryman of mine who served in the Stavropol riot police and received the rank of colonel. When the special military operation [the Russian term for the war in Ukraine – ed.] started, he went to the front as a volunteer soldier to protect the residents of Donbas," he wrote.
The date of Pisarenko’s death was not specified.
The Akhmat battalion has been participating in combat action in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
Background:
In June, the Russian Ministry of Defence issued an order obliging all "voluntary formations" to sign a contract with the Defence Ministry by 1 July "in order to increase the efficiency of their deployment" in the war against Ukraine; mercenaries from the Akhmat unit were the first to sign this document on camera.
Kyiv has called for an international tribunal since uncovering compelling evidence of war crimes after Russian forces withdrew from the town of Bucha in April 2022
An international office opened in The Hague on July 3 to investigate alleged crimes committed by Russia during its war against Ukraine. The office is seen as the first step toward the creation of an international tribunal for Russian leaders. The new office, called the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA), includes prosecutors from Ukraine, the European Union, the United States, and the International Criminal Court. Kyiv has called for an international tribunal since uncovering compelling evidence of war crimes after Russian forces withdrew from the town of Bucha in April 2022.
António
Guterres, the UN’s secretary
general, called out Russia on
Thursday for killing 136 children in Ukraine in 2022,
adding its armed forces to a global list of offenders, according to a report to
the UN security council seen by Reuters.
The UN also verified that Russian armed forces
and affiliated groups injured 518 children and carried out 480 attacks on
schools and hospitals. Russian armed forces also used 91 children as human
shields, according to the report.
Russia has denied
targeting civilians since it invaded Ukraine last
February. The Ukrainian armed forces are not on the global offenders list.
The report also verified that Ukrainian armed
forces killed 80 children, injured 175 children and carried out 212 attacks on
schools and hospitals, Reuters reports.
Guterres reportedly said in the report that he
was “particularly shocked” by the high number of children killed and wounded
and attacks on schools and hospitals by Russian armed forces.
He also said he was “particularly disturbed”
by the high number of such offences against children by Ukrainian armed forces.
Guterres’ annual report to the 15-member
security council on children and armed conflict covers the killing, maiming,
sexual abuse, abduction or recruitment of children, denial of aid access and
targeting of schools and hospitals.
The report was compiled by Virginia Gamba,
Guterres’ special representative for children and armed conflict.
https://www.theguardian.com
Unlawful Transfer: Inside The Russian
System To Take Ukraine's Children
The new center, at the offices of the EU’s Eurojust justice agency, includes prosecutors from Ukraine, the EU, the United States, and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is also located in The Hague
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vowed to “leave no stone unturned” to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin and others responsible for alleged crimes committed during the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine as the international community opened a new office in The Hague to investigate and gather evidence for any future trials.
"We will leave no stone unturned to hold Putin and his henchmen accountable," von der Leyen said in a statement on July 3 marking the opening of the International Center For The Prosecution Of The Crime Of Aggression (ICPA).
"The new international prosecution center will play a key role in making sure that the perpetrators are brought to justice," she added.
The new center, at the offices of the EU’s Eurojust justice agency, includes prosecutors from Ukraine, the EU, the United States, and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is also located in The Hague.
The ICC has previously issued international arrest warrants for Putin on suspicion of war crimes, including the alleged deportation of children to Russia from Ukraine.
The new center looks to plug some gaps in the ICC’s jurisdiction, which does not allow it to prosecute crimes of aggression -- a key charge leveled against the Kremlin in its unprovoked February 2022 attack on Ukraine.
The Eurojust agency has already established a database for evidence on war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide related to the war.
“With the setup of the ICPA, the European Union reiterates its commitment to ensuring full accountability for the international crimes committed during Russia’s war against Ukraine, including the crime of aggression,” European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said.
He added that the ICPA is a “clear signal to the world that the prohibition of the use of force continues to be the foundation of our international rule-based order and that those who violate it will be held accountable.”
Ukraine Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, speaking at the center’s opening, said a special tribunal for Russian leadership was now "inevitable."
"We are gathered here on the occasion of a truly historic moment. I would say an epoch-defining moment," Kostin told reporters.
In an interview before the opening, Kostin said that "we need experts, we need forensics, we need additional information, including intelligence information, in order for this case to be strong, because we all know that the crime of aggression is the leadership crime."
Ukrainian officials have pressed for a special tribunal since the ass killings of civilians was discovered in the town of Bucha in April 2022 following the withdrawal of Russian troops.
Russia has denied it targets civilians, despite evidence and witnesses to the contrary. It has also labeled its invasion a "special military operation" and forbids the use of the word "war" among reports in Russia.
Russia's top military officer, General Valery Gerasimov (left), and General Sergei Surovikin (right), who was appointed by Putin to be Russia's overall commander for the invasion of Ukraine, are pictured in 2021.
The guessing game in Moscow these days: Where are they?
Days after a mutiny by the mercenary warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, who sent thousands of his fighters racing toward the Russian capital, a growing number of prominent commanders and public figures have disappeared from public view.
Rattled by the biggest challenge he has faced in his 23 years as the country's preeminent political figure, President Vladimir Putin has suggested he would root out those inside and outside the military people who have allied themselves, quietly or overtly, with Prigozhin.
He may also be seeking to sideline those who let it happen or whose conduct of Russia's war in Ukraine has made them liabilities in his eyes.
"The armed insurgency by the Wagner private military company has become a pretext for a massive purge in the ranks of the Russian armed forces," said Rybar, а Telegram channel linked to a former Defense Ministry official.
The scope and scale of the purported purge is unclear, as is the depth and breadth of support for Prigozhin in the Defense Ministry, security agencies, and elsewhere. Some of those who have faded from view may simply be lying low -- under orders or at their own initiative -- in the hope the crisis will blow over.
Tatyana Stanovaya, a longtime Russian political analyst, cautioned that it is unclear whether there will be widespread dismissals and a major reshuffling of Putin's closest advisers or other influential figures.
"What distinguishes the current situation is Putin's progressive loss of initiative in dealing with domestic issues," she said in a post to Twitter. "His heightened emotional state makes him more susceptible to manipulation. We appear to be observing a new phase in Putin's regime, where his entourage is becoming more actively involved in shaping its trajectory."
Here's who's gone missing, and who has entered the limelight.
Sergei Surovikin
Dubbed "General Armageddon" by Russia's tabloids, General Sergei Surovikin is arguably -- after Prigozhin -- the person being most closely watched in the aftermath of the mutiny.
Currently commander of Russia's Aerospace Forces, Surovikin was appointed Russia's overall commander for the invasion of Ukraine by Putin last October.
At the time, the invasion was faltering; Ukrainian forces had stunned Russian troops with an offensive in the Kharkiv region, in the northeast. Surovikin ordered Russian forces to barrage Ukraine's electricity grid and civilian infrastructure with missiles. Under pressure from advancing Ukrainian troops, he also withdrew Russia's forces from the right bank of Dnieper River in the Kherson region, in the south.
Putin awards Surovikin (left) for his command of Russian troops in Syria in 2017.
Surovikin's appointment was championed by Prigozhin and other hard-line nationalists who pressed the Kremlin to wage an even more brutal campaign against Ukraine. He was viewed as a ruthless -- and effective -- commander overseeing Russia's intervention in the Syrian conflict in the late 2010s. Syria was where he and Prigozhin likely cemented their working relationship.
"Surovikin [is] a brute but also one of the more capable Russian commanders," Lawrence Freedman, an emeritus professor of war studies at King's College London, said in a post on Twitter.
But Surovikin only lasted three months as overall commander for the war in Ukraine: He was demoted and replaced in January by General Valery Gerasimov, the longtime chief of the General Staff and a Putin loyalist.
In the initial hours of the mutiny, Surovikin appeared in a video imploring Wagner fighters to stand down. But Surovikin's behavior in the video raised questions about whether it might have been coerced.
Since the video, Surovikin has not been seen or heard from publicly.
The Financial Times, The Moscow Times, and the Associated Press reported that Surovikin was believed to have been detained by authorities investigating the mutiny -- though it was unclear whether, if true, he was being treated as a suspect or as a witness.
Aleksei Venediktov, the well-connected editor in chief of the now-closed radio station Ekho Moskvy, said in a post to Telegram on June 28 that Surovikin had not been in contact with his family for three days.
On June 29, the head of the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission, a state-sanctioned agency that monitors jails and prisons, released a cryptic statement on Telegram that raised as many questions as it answered.
"My response is: He is not in Lefortovo or any other pretrial detention facility," Aleksei Melnikov said, referring to an infamous high-security Moscow prison where treason and espionage suspects are usually held.
Yevgeny Prigozhin
The last time Prigozhin was heard from was in an 11-minute audio message posted to his Telegram channel on the evening of June 26, nearly 48 hours after the purported resolution of the mutiny.
"We started our march because of injustice," he said. "Our goal was not to overthrow the existing regime and the legally elected government, which was said many times. We turned around so as not to shed Russian soldiers' blood."
But the audio message did not indicate where and when the recording was made or reveal Prigozhin's physical whereabouts.
A video released on June 24 showed Yevgeny Prigozhin (center) meeting with Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov (left) and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev (right) in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
Under the deal announced first by Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Prigozhin was to travel to Belarus, and his Wagner fighters would be allowed to go there as well or sign contracts to serve under the command of the Defense Ministry.
On June 27, Lukashenka claimed Prigozhin had arrived in Minsk, but there was no independent confirmation. Flight trackers showed a private jet registered to his company arriving in the Belarusian capital that day and returning to St. Petersburg on June 28, but it was unclear if he was on the jet for either leg.
Putin's harsh condemnation of the mutineers -- he called the effort a "betrayal" and a "stab in the back" -- suggested Prigozhin and his allies could face retribution: arrest or worse.
Russia's main domestic intelligence agency announced June 27 it was dropping its criminal investigation of the mutineers. However, the Kommersant newspaper, and several state-controlled news agencies, later reported that the investigation remained open.
Sergei Shoigu
One of Putin's closest and longest-serving confidants, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, 68, has been the recipient of lacerating criticism and vaguely racist insults from Prigozhin -- and other hard-line nationalists and military bloggers -- for his overall command of Russia's military during the Ukraine invasion.
Since at least last summer, when the Russian invasion visibly faltered, Prigozhin has repeatedly ripped into him by name, accusing him of depriving Wagner forces of the ammunition needed to fight in the now-obliterated Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Shoigu's distrust of Prigozhin has been less visible. But in May, the Defense Ministry issued an order that would formally bring Wagner fighters under regular command, depriving the group of its quasi-autonomous force.
That was believed to be the last straw for Prigozhin, who resisted losing control of his military force.
In the wake of the mutiny, the Defense Ministry released a video of Shoigu inspecting Russian troops and awarding medals in an undisclosed location. The video appeared to have been recorded prior to the rebellion.
A photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry purported to show Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (center) inspecting a military unit on June 26.
But Prigozhin's mutiny included his forces taking control of Russia's southern military command in the city of Rostov-on-Don, putting his troops in direct confrontation with Defense Ministry officers. Another video that circulated on Telegram early on June 24 showed Prigozhin meeting with a deputy defense minister, Colonel General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and the deputy chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev.
"We want to get the chief of the General Staff and Shoigu," Prigozhin said. "Until they are here, we are here, we are blocking the city of Rostov and moving toward Moscow."
"You believe everything you're doing right now is right. Is that right?" Yevkurov is seen asking Prigozhin in the video. "Absolutely right. We're saving Russia," Prigozhin responds.
That video was seen as a potential embarrassment for the two top military commanders, who have played key roles in the invasion.
Shoigu was shown on June 26 attending a Security Council meeting with Putin. A day later, Shoigu appeared at Kremlin ceremony, where Putin thanked soldiers and guards and those "who stood in the way of the mutineers."
He did not speak, and has given no media interviews since the mutiny.
ValeryGerasimov
Prigozhin's other punching bag has been Gerasimov, who as chief of the General Staff is Russia's top military officer.
Like Shoigu, Gerasimov, 67, is seen as loyal to Putin, a trait the Russian leader is known to value.
Shoigu and Gerasimov (right) are pictured on December 16, 2022.
Known as a stolid, competent strategist, Gerasimov took a backseat role in the Ukraine operation for nearly all of 2022. But his position at the start of the full-scale invasion that February, and the major failures that Russian forces have experienced, stoked his critics' calls for his sacking.
Gerasimov ended up with the post of supreme Ukraine commander in January, when Putin demoted Surovikin. One Western expert characterized the shuffle as "infighting, power struggles, jealousy."
Gerasimov, who never had a very public media presence, has not been seen or heard from since before the mutiny. Unlike Shoigu, he did not appear at the June 27 Kremlin ceremony.
Viktor Zolotov
In contrast to the commanders and officials who have dropped out of sight in recent days, Viktor Zolotov, Putin's longtime bodyguard, dating back to his time in St. Petersburg, has seen his public presence -- relatively minimal in the past -- grow considerably.
Zolotov's loyalty to Putin earned him the appointment to be the first chief of the newly created National Guard in 2016. Seen as a sort of Praetorian Guard, the National Guard has grown into a 300,000-strong force whose responsibilities of ensuring internal stability within Russia dovetail with other units within the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service, and other agencies.
General Viktor Zolotov, chief of Putin's security service at the time, walks behind the Russian president in Vienna in 2007.
Mainly a behind-the-scenes player, Zolotov's most visible public presence in recent years came in 2018, when he responded publicly to an investigation by opposition gadfly Aleksei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, which charged that nearly $30 million in procurement contracts had been stolen from the National Guard.
"I simply challenge you to a duel, in the ring, on the judo mat, anywhere, and I promise to make mincemeat of you," he said, addressing Navalny.
Zolotov, too, appeared at the Kremlin ceremony where Putin thanked units -- including some from the National Guard -- for their actions during the mutiny.
Unlike Shoigu, however, Zolotov spoke publicly to reporters after the event, where he announced his force would be receiving heavy weaponry, including tanks, to bolster their arsenal.
"We concentrated all our fists and forces precisely on the approaches to Moscow," Zolotov bragged to reporters. "Because if our forces had been scattered [Wagner] would have passed through them like a knife through butter."
"The rebels would not have taken Moscow," he said.
Other Names To Watch
Several other lower-key, non-marquee names are also worth watching for, as an indication where any potential purge might be moving:
Colonel General Andrei Yudin, Surovikin's deputy commander in the aerospace forces, was reported by Russian military bloggers to have been detained earlier this week. However, he later answered his phone when called by a reporter from the Kremlin-friendly news site Ura.ru: "I'm at home, on holiday."
Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev joined Wagner as a deputy commander in early May, days after being sacked as deputy defense minister.
Known as the "Butcher of Mariupol" for his role in the scorched-earth siege of the Ukrainian Azov Sea port city last year, Mizintsev had overseen logistics and supplies at the Defense Ministry, meaning he played an instrumental role in getting ammunition and supplies to Wagner, as well as regular troops.
The two officers who appeared in the early mutiny video alongside Prigozhin -- Yevkurov and Alekseyev -- have also been out of sight since last weekend.
