The Ukrainian leader warned of "dangerous provocations" at Zaporizhzhia, while Moscow countered with similar allegations of Kyiv planning an attack on the plant.
General Sergei Surovikin, Commander-in-Chief of Russian Aerospace Forces and deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, has not been seen in public since the Wagner Group mutiny, the UK Defense Ministry said in its latest intelligence update.
Reports of Surovikin’s arrest cannot be confirmed, the ministry said. However, it added that Russia authorities will likely be suspicious of Surovikin's long association with Wagner dating back to his service in Syria from 2017.
According to the update, Surovikin is one of the more respected senior officers within the Russian military, so any official punishment against him is likely to be divisive.
The UK Defense Ministry also mentioned Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Yunus-bek Yevkurov who was filmed talking with Wagner chied Yevgeny Prigozhin during the mutiny. According to the update, Yevkurov was absent from a televised appearance by the ministry’s leadership on Monday.
The suspicion that has potentially fallen on senior serving officers highlights how Prigozhin’s abortive insurrection has worsened existing fault lines within Russia’s national security community, the defense ministry concludes.
Ukraine's military said it attacked and "destroyed" a Russian base in Makiivka in the Russian-controlled part of the Donetsk region
"As a result of precision firing by Defence Forces units, another formation of Russian terrorists in the temporarily occupied Makiivka ceased to exist," the strategic communication office of Ukraine's Armed Forces said.
The office also posted an accompanying video to its message on Telegram which appeared to show explosions in the town.
