The notorious mercenary group Wagner is becoming more and more powerful in Russia. Now the boss Yevgeny Prigozchin is even building up his own air force. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has compared Ukraine’s fight against Russia to the fight against the Nazis in World War II. what happened tonight
Russia’s shadow army is now building its own air force
The notorious mercenary group Wagner is becoming more and more powerful. Founder Yevgeny Prigozhin is now building his own parallel army to Putin’s troops. He independently recruits fighters and becomes increasingly dangerous to the Russian President. Now the hardliner Prigozhin has started a new round of recruitment.
According to the US think tank “Institute for the Study of War” (ISW), “Putin’s Koch” is currently building his own air force. Russian military bloggers report that Prigozhin recruits anti-missile defense crews, helicopter pilots and fighter jet specialists. One of the bloggers writes that the Wagner Group is “an example of a treaty army, which the Russian Ministry of Defense has striven for over the years”. The “ISW” experts draw the conclusion that the Wagner Group is increasingly becoming a parallel army.
Wagner soldiers have been fighting for Russia in Ukraine for months. Putin is dependent on the brutal troops. At the same time, founder Prigozhin continues to expand his power.
Selenskyj compares the fight against the Russians with the fight against the Nazis
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has compared his country’s struggle against the aggressor Russia with resistance against the Nazis in World War II. Like Nazism, Russia is pursuing the same goals. “The form of evil has changed, but the essence is unchanged,” said Zelenskyj in a video message distributed in Kyiv on Friday night. Russia has gone from being a neighbor to an aggressor and a terrorist – and is guilty of war crimes.
Standing next to a shot down combat drone, Zelenskyy said that peaceful cities were repeatedly being bombarded with bombs and rockets. In the past two days alone, there have been 30 Russian attacks with Iranian drones, 23 of which have been shot down. Russia mines or seizes power plants, steals crops to threaten the planet with hunger. It abducts people, including children.
Referring to the Second World War and the Ukrainians’ fight against the Nazis at the time, Zelenskyy said that “evil had risen from the ashes again after 80 years”. He lamented that since the war began on February 24, the aggressor Russia had fired 4,500 rockets at Ukraine and carried out a total of 8,000 airstrikes.
Zelenskyy emphasized that the Ukrainian resistance is strong. The country will not be broken. The head of state expressed confidence that the invader would capitulate and be put to flight. Russia will also pay reparations; and the occupied territories of Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea would be free again.
“Russia’s only tactic is terror,” said Zelenskyy. That can only lead to defeat. In view of the power cuts as a result of the destroyed energy infrastructure, he said that life without light is not dark, but rather without freedom. The Ukrainians would also survive the harsh winter. “We are not afraid of the dark,” Zelenskyj said.
US military strategy: Russia “imminent” threat
In its new military strategy, the US government sees Russia as an “acute” threat. The word was carefully chosen, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the presentation of the document on Thursday. “Unlike China, Russia cannot systematically challenge the United States in the long term,” Austin said. “But Russian aggression is a direct and acute threat to our interests and values.”
China was ranked as the top persistent threat. It is the only country that “both wants to restructure the international order and increasingly has the strength to do so”.
With regard to the use of American nuclear weapons, it is said that a very high threshold will continue to be set. However, the strategy does not stipulate that they should only be used in response to a nuclear attack.
IAEA plans inspections in Ukraine later this week
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) intends to send an observer mission to Ukraine this week following accusations from Russia that Kyiv is planning to use a “dirty” bomb in the war.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Thursday, according to a statement. Experts from the organization will carry out inspections at two locations in Ukraine this week after the Ukrainian government wrote to request teams of inspectors to be sent. Putin had also spoken out in favor of sending an IAEA observer mission to Ukraine as soon as possible.
What will be important on Friday
Kremlin chief Putin chairs a meeting of the Council of the Russian-led military alliance Organization of the Collective Security Treaty (CSTO) this Friday. It should once again be about the effects of the war in Ukraine on the states of the former Soviet Union.
After his return from Kyiv, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will address the challenges posed by the Russian war against Ukraine. At an event with the German National Foundation in Berlin (11:00 a.m.), he intends to make a speech to evoke the cohesion of German society.
Also Read: The October 27 Ukraine Update
Israel has been heavily criticized in recent days. The government is accused of not providing sufficient support to Ukraine. The Israeli President now explained his country’s strategy to CNN.
Russian veterans from Afghanistan, Chechnya and Ukraine are said to have written a guide with their experiences for recruits in the Ukraine war. The handbook is to be distributed to soldiers before they go to the front, reports say. The chapters range from war propaganda to cooking recipes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin needs his military elite for the war in Ukraine. But two men gain more and more power. The “Siloviki” Yevgeny Prigozhin and Ramzan Kadyrov are cornering the President.
