Russia says two commanders killed as Kyiv wages Bakhmut offensive

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Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Ukraine's Donetsk region on May 12, 2023. (AP)
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A Ukrainian tank rides on the road near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, on May 11, 2023. (AP)
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A Ukrainian soldier gives water to a captured Russian army serviceman near the front line city of Bakhmut on May 11, 2023. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/via REUTERS)
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Updated 15 May 2023
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Russia says two commanders killed as Kyiv wages Bakhmut offensive

  • Wagner head offered to reveal Russian troop locations to Ukraine in exchange for Kyiv withdrawing its soldiers from Bakhmut, WAPO reports

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that two of its military commanders were killed in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv’s forces renewed efforts to break through Russian defenses in the embattled city of Bakhmut.
In a daily briefing, the ministry said that Commander Vyacheslav Makarov of the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade and Deputy Commander Yevgeny Brovko from a separate unit were killed trying to repel Ukrainian attacks.
It said that Makarov had been leading troops from the front line, and that Brovko “died heroically, suffering multiple shrapnel wounds.” The defense ministry rarely announces the deaths of military command in its daily briefings.
It also said Ukrainian forces waged attacks in the north and south of Bakhmut over the past 24 hours, but that they had not broken through Russian defenses. “All attacks by units of Ukraine’s armed forces have been repelled,” it said.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary force which has spearheaded much of the Russian advance on Bakhmut, said his forces had advanced up to 130 meters (400 feet) over the past 24 hours.
Prigozhin, in an audio statement on Telegram, said his forces controlled 28 multi-story buildings in western districts of Bakhmut where Ukrainian troops were still operating.
Ukrainian forces, he said, were holding 20 buildings and a total area of 1.69 square km (0.65 square miles).
Reuters was not able to independently verify Russia’s account.
Ukrainian deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar confirmed on Sunday that Ukrainian forces “continue to move forward in the Bakhmut sector in the suburbs.”




A Ukrainian soldier gives water to a captured Russian army serviceman near the front line city of Bakhmut on May 11, 2023. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/via REUTERS)

“Our units captured more than ten enemy positions in the north and south of Bakhmut and cleared a large area of forest near Ivanivske. Enemy soldiers from different units were captured,” she said on the Telegram messaging app.
Neither Ukraine nor Russian forces have been able to take full control of the city, despite months of grinding warfare that has inflicted heavy losses on both sides.
Moscow acknowledged on Friday that its forces had fallen back north of Bakhmut amid a surge of Ukrainian attacks, but Kyiv has played down suggestions a huge, long-planned counteroffensive has officially begun.

Wagner head's offer to Ukraine

Meanwhile, a Washington Post report on Sunday, citing leaked US intelligence documents, said Wagner chief Prigozhin offered to reveal the position of Russian troops to the Ukranian government.




In this handout image taken from a video released by Prigozhin Press Service on May 12, 2023, Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin makes a video statement saying the Russian military in Bakhmut has effectively fled and "our flanks are crumbling." (Prigozhin Press Service via AP)

Wagner’s soldiers have been at the forefront of a bloody Russian offensive to take the city of Bakhmut. In exchange for Ukraine withdrawing its soldiers from the area, Prigozhin in January offered to tell its intelligence service the positions of Russian forces, the Post reported.

The paper said Ukraine rejected the offer.
Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has publicly threatened to withdraw his mercenaries from the area around Bakhmut, where they are at the vanguard of the Russian offensive, unless they receive much-needed ammunition.
He said Tuesday in an audio message that he and his men would be regarded as traitors if they abandoned the area.
The Post reported Prigozhin’s offer came through his contacts with Ukraine’s intelligence service.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the offer.
The report is based on secret US documents leaked to the group-chat platform Discord.

 

 


Albania approves luxury resort project linked to Jared Kushner’s company

Updated 2 sec ago
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Albania approves luxury resort project linked to Jared Kushner’s company

The committee said the project complied with legislation on strategic investment
Last year, Kushner announced plans to build a tourist resort in Zvernec in southern Albania

TIRANA: Albania’s government has granted strategic investor status to a company linked to Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to build a luxury resort on an uninhabited Mediterranean island that was once a military outpost.
The Balkan country’s Strategic Investment Committee, headed by Prime Minister Edi Rama, on Dec. 30 accepted a proposal by Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC for the 45-hectare project on the small island of Sazan, involving a planned investment of 1.4 billion euros ($1.4 billion).
In the written decision, seen by Reuters on Thursday, the committee said the project complied with legislation on strategic investment and on the number of jobs required by the legislation, saying it would employ an estimated 1,000 people.
Under the law, the granting of strategic investment status allows companies to implement an investment project that is deemed strategic as part of a strategic sector of the economy such as tourism.
“The form of the state’s participation in this investment will be realized through the establishment of a joint legal entity,” the committee said, adding that it would include the state-run Albanian Investment Corporation.
Reuters could not immediately reach Atlantic Incubation Partners for comment.
Last year, Kushner announced plans to build a tourist resort in Zvernec in southern Albania as part of a wider investment by his Affinity Partners in the Balkans that also includes the project on Sazan, off the Albanian coast, and a project in a former army headquarters in the Serbian capital Belgrade.
Kushner, who served as a top aide to Trump during his father-in-law’s first term as US president, set up the investment firm in 2021. Trump is due to be inaugurated for a second term on Tuesday.
The projects could boost local economies by enticing visitors, but the company faces opposition from critics who say they will harm the environment or, in the case of Belgrade, threaten sites of cultural significance.

Pakistan ex-PM Khan’s party holds talks with government ahead of ruling in graft case

Updated 10 min 42 sec ago
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Pakistan ex-PM Khan’s party holds talks with government ahead of ruling in graft case

  • The verdict in the graft case due on Friday is the largest that Khan faces in terms of financial impropriety
  • The case is linked to the Al-Qadir Trust that Khan and his wife set up while he was in office

ISLAMABAD: The party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday held formal reconciliatory talks with the government, aimed at cooling political instability in the 241-million South Asian nation, both sides said.
The talks come a day ahead of a crucial court ruling in a land corruption case against the 72-year-old former cricket star-turned-politician.
The verdict in the graft case due on Friday is the largest that Khan faces in terms of financial impropriety, involving possible bribes of land in return for a 190-million-British-pound favor to a real estate tycoon.
The case is linked to the Al-Qadir Trust that Khan and his wife set up while he was in office. Prosecutors say it was a front for Khan to receive land as a bribe from a real estate developer. Khan’s party says the land was not for personal gain but was a spiritual educational institution.
Khan’s removal from office in 2022 stoked the instability, which has worsened with his party leading violent protests to urge his release, and threatens an economic recovery under a $7 billion IMF bailout.
“We have presented our demands to the government,” Khan’s aide Omar Ayub, who is leading his side in the talks, told reporters. The government agreed to party leaders’ meeting with Khan in jail, which should be done without any monitoring, he said.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s demands mainly include setting up two judicial commissions to probe into the events which led to his arrest in August 2023, and the violent protest rallies, including one on May 9, 2023, when his supporters rampaged through military offices and installations.
Speaker of the parliament Ayaz Sadiq who is facilitating both the parties said he had received the PTI’s list of demands.
“We will respond to the demands within seven working days,” said Iran Siddique, lead negotiator from the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.


Novo Nordisk, other companies meet Danish prime minister following Trump’s Greenland threat

Updated 28 min 10 sec ago
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Novo Nordisk, other companies meet Danish prime minister following Trump’s Greenland threat

  • Frederiksen summoned business leaders after speaking on Wednesday with US President-elect Donald Trump
  • The Danish leader said Trump had not retracted his threats of economic coercion during the 45-minute phone conversation

COPENHAGEN: The CEO of obesity drugmaker Novo Nordisk and heads of other Danish companies met on Thursday with Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to discuss preparations for a possible trade conflict with the United States over Greenland.
Frederiksen summoned business leaders after speaking on Wednesday with US President-elect Donald Trump, who last week refused to rule out military or economic action to take control of Greenland, which is strategically important to Washington.
Trump has suggested he would impose tariffs on Danish goods if it resists his offer to buy the vast Arctic island, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.
The Danish leader said Trump had not retracted his threats of economic coercion during the 45-minute phone conversation, in which she told him it was up to Greenland to decide its future and offered to do more to strengthen security in the Arctic.
“We don’t want to have any kind of conflict with the Americans in the trade area, but of course we are working with the companies, with the business organizations and with our European colleagues,” Frederiksen told journalists.
She said she had informed Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede ahead of the phone call with Trump, and that she had also spoken to Egede right afterwards.
“We’re not preparing for specific things we don’t know yet, but it has been hinted at from the US side that there may unfortunately be a situation where we work less together than we do today,” she added.

DISCUSSIONS WITH BUSINESS LEADERS
Frederiksen said she had emphasized in her conversation with Trump that Danish companies contribute to growth and jobs in the United States and that the EU and the US have a common interest in increased trade.
The CEO of Danish obesity and diabetes drugmaker Novo Nordisk, Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, will participate in the meeting, the company said on Thursday.
Novo, which competes with US drugmaker Eli Lilly in the fast-growing weight-loss drug market, makes the main active ingredient — semaglutide — in its popular obesity and diabetes injections Wegovy and Ozempic in Denmark, and exports it to the United States.
In the first nine months of 2024, Novo’s US sales totalled 115 billion Danish crowns ($15.86 billion), of which obesity drug Wegovy accounted for 31.1 billion.
Other participants in the meeting include CEOs of jewelry maker Pandora, toymaker Lego, brewer Carlsberg , wind turbine maker Vestas and offshore wind farm developer Orsted, the companies said.
Shipping group Maersk said its executives were traveling and would not participate.


Tanker seized by Finland over ripped cables won’t face cargo sanctions probe

Updated 16 January 2025
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Tanker seized by Finland over ripped cables won’t face cargo sanctions probe

  • Police seized the tanker last month on suspicion of damaging a Finnish-Estonian power line and four telecoms cables
  • Police have said nine crew members are suspects in a criminal investigation

HELSINKI: The Eagle S tanker seized by Finnish authorities on suspicion of ripping up subsea cables will not face a separate criminal investigation into whether its fuel cargo violates sanctions imposed on Russia, the Customs Office said on Thursday.
Police seized the tanker last month on suspicion of damaging a Finnish-Estonian power line and four telecoms cables.
The Customs Office believes the Eagle S is part of a shadow fleet of tankers used to circumvent sanctions on Russian oil, and has impounded its cargo of unleaded petrol and diesel.
“The cargo of the ship will remain detained by Finnish Customs for the time being,” it said in a statement.
Police have said nine crew members are suspects in a criminal investigation into possible sabotage of the subsea cables.
The ship’s cargo is subject to sanctions imposed against Russia by the European Union, and thus barred from importation into Finland. But because the vessel entered Finnish territorial waters at the request of Finnish authorities, the crew cannot be considered to have intentionally violated those sanctions, the Customs Office said.
A lawyer representing the ship’s owner, Caravela LLC FZ, has said the ship’s alleged damage to undersea equipment happened outside of Finland’s territorial waters and therefore Helsinki lacked jurisdiction to intervene.
Baltic Sea nations are on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The NATO military alliance in response plans to boost its presence in the region.


Ukraine confirms attack on oil depot in western Russia

Updated 16 January 2025
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Ukraine confirms attack on oil depot in western Russia

  • The attack is the latest aerial assault by Ukraine to target Russian energy sites
  • “Ukrainian Defense Forces hit the Liskinska oil depot,” the Ukrainian General Staff said

KYIV: Ukraine confirmed Thursday that its forces had struck an oil depot in western Russia, where officials had said earlier that Kyiv’s drones had sparked a blaze in the Voronezh region bordering Ukraine.
The attack is the latest aerial assault by Ukraine to target Russian energy sites and military facilities in a campaign that has escalated this week.
“Ukrainian Defense Forces hit the Liskinska oil depot,” the Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement, claiming that “a large-scale fire broke out at the facility.”
It added that three drones had struck the storage facilities, which it claimed was used by the Russian army.
The governor of the Voronezh region had said earlier that several drones “sparked a fire at an oil depot.”
Governor Alexander Gusev said Voronezh was attacked by more than 10 drones, with most striking a depot in the Liskinsky district.
He said that there were no casualties and that reinforcement firefighters had been dispatched to put out the blaze.
Videos posted by witnesses showed a substantial blaze.
Kyiv said earlier this week that it had carried out its largest aerial attack of the war on Russian army factories and energy hubs hundreds of kilometers from the front line.
Russia responded with a mass missile and drone attack that primarily targeted Ukrainian energy facilities in the west of the country.