Russia Attacks Ukraine - 23 Feb 2022 **Media Thread** NO DISCUSSION #5

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6m ago23.30 AEST

Speculation over Putin's whereabouts as reports his plane left Moscow

There have been numerous reports that Putin’s presidential plane took off from Moscow Vnukovo Airport at 2:16PM Moscow time (12:16PM BST) and then headed north-west.

According to data from the FlightRadar tracking website, the plane reached the Tver area - about 180km from Moscow and where Putin has a residence – before disappearing from the system.

It has not been possible to confirm whether Putin was on the plane and Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told news agency TASS the president is “working in the Kremlin”.

Meanwhile, Iranian state media quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani on Saturday as saying Iran supports the rule of law in the Russian Federation and considers the latest developments there an internal Russian matter.

 
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  • #445
35 min ago

Russian governor appeals to Prigozhin to "abandon his plans"

From CNN's Uliana Pavlova

The governor of the Russian region of Kursk, which borders Ukraine, has urged Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to abandon his plans.

“The Kursk region closely cooperated with the PMC 'Wagner' in the training of fighters of voluntary people's squads of our region, and I myself took this training,” Roman Starovoyt said in a Telegram post.

Wagner should not be forgotten, he said, because “together we rejoiced at the success of the guys when we liberated Soledar and Artemovsk (Russian name for Bakhmut), and mourned together with the families of the fallen soldiers.”

“The ambitions of the leader should not cross out the past merits of ordinary fighters," Starovoyt added, directly urging Prigozhin "to abandon his plans, lay down his arms and prevent the development of an internal conflict in the country.”
 
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The latest on the armed rebellion declared by Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin:

The governor of Russia’s Lipetsk province said Saturday that the Wagner mercenary group has entered the region.

The Lipetsk region is about 360 kilometers (225 miles) south of Moscow and much closer to the capital than Rostov-on-Don, where Wagner forces appeared during the night.

Authorities “are taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety of the population. The situation is under control,” governor Igor Artamonov said on Telegram. He did not give details about the Wagner presence.
 
  • #449
5m ago15.08 BST
Russian authorities have reportedly offered the Wagner mutineers an amnesty if they surrender.

Russian state owned news agency Tass has been told by a Russian lawmaker that the Wagner fighters have been promised an amnesty if they law down their weapons but they need to act fast, Reuters reports.

The Turkish presidency meanwhile confirmed that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday and urged him to act with common sense.

It said the two discussed recent developments in Russia and Erdogan told Putin that Turkey was ready to do its part to help bring about a peaceful solution to the situation.
 
  • #450
22 min ago

Russian security forces seen taking positions in southern Moscow, according to Russian newspaper

From CNN's Nathan Hodge

Russian security forces were seen taking positions in southern Moscow, according to photos published by Russian business newspaper Vedomosti.

The images published by the paper showed Russian security forces in body armor and equipped with automatic weapons taking up a position near a highway linking Moscow with southern Russia.

Photographs posted on the Vedomosti Telegram channel show armed and uniformed men on Lipetskaya Street, near the entrance to the M4 highway linking the capital with the cities of Voronezh and Rostov-on-Don.

[...]
 
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Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of the Chechnya region who used to side with Prigozhin in his criticism of the military leadership, also expressed his full support of "every word of" Putin.

One of the staunchest supporters of President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, Kadyrov wrote in a lengthy post on Telegram that war was not the time to voice “personal grievances.” He was ready to employ “harsh measures” to subdue the rebellion, Kadyrov added.

Kadyrov also said his fighters had already left for the “zones of tension,” without elaborating.

 
  • #452

3m ago10.26 EDT
The BBC Russia has reported evacuations of public buildings across Moscow as the Wagner rebels advance.

The broadcaster said Museums near the Kremlin are being evacuated in Moscow.

There have been reports over the last few hours of the evacuation of the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Museum and the GES-2 House of Culture, the BBC added.

The Mega Belaya Dacha shopping center and the Kvartal shopping center were also evacuated in Moscow, they said.
 
  • #453
30s ago15.34 BST
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday that Canada’s incident response group will meet to discuss the latest developments in Russia as mutinous Russian mercenaries barrelled towards Moscow after seizing a southern city overnight.

“We’re in contact with our allies and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” Trudeau wrote on Twitter.

 
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3m ago15.37 BST
Anti-terrorist measures have been introduced in regions which lie between Moscow and the advancing Wagner rebels.

In the Tambov region – which neighbours the Lipetsk, which Wagner forces have just entered - mass events were canceled Saturday, AP reports.

Those events included high school graduation parties. Russia’s Education Ministry said such parties were being postponed until July 1 in Moscow, the region around the capital and “a number of other regions where additional anti-terrorist measures have been introduced.”

In the capital, traffic on the Moscow River was suspended. Police officers in bulletproof vests and with machine guns were seen near the entrance of the major highway that links Moscow with Voronezh and Rostov–on-Don.
 
  • #456
31 min ago

Here's what global leaders are saying about the unfolding situation in Russia

[...]

Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for the resumption of law and order in Russia.
"Constitutional order and the rule of law are a prerequisite for the maintenance of law and order in the country. This is the basis for the security of society and its successful development," the Kazakh president's press service reported, adding that Putin thanked Tokayev for understanding the situation.

The European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell triggered a bloc-wide crisis response center to monitor the developing rebellion by Wagner. On Twitter, he emphasized that the EU support to Ukraine "continues unabated."

Latvia has increased security along its border with Russia and barred Russians from entering amid the developing situation, according to Latvia's Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs. He said on Twitter that there is "no direct threat to Latvia" and said officials are exchanging information with allies.

Georgia is "monitoring closely" the events unfolding in Russia, President Salome Zourabichvili said Saturday.
"Our border has to be tightly controlled in view of possible new waves of migration," she tweeted.

Germany has also been monitoring developments "very closely" since yesterday evening and is in close contact with its international partners, the country's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Saturday.
"German citizens in Russia are advised to follow our adapted travel and security advice," she said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is "closely following the events unfolding in Russia, which bear witness to how the aggression against Ukraine is also causing instability within the Russian Federation," her office said in a statement.

The Italian Embassy in Moscow has appealed to Italian citizens in Russia's Rostov and Voronezh regions to stay "under cover" and keep "informed of developments," CNN's affiliate SkyTG24 reported Saturday.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said the current events show that Russia's war on Ukraine has "backfired."
"Closely following the events. The Kremlin regime reaps what it sows. All the violence directed at Ukraine has backfired," he tweeted. "The NATO Vilnius Summit will evaluate new circumstances. The complex security situation calls for additional measures. We must get ready for any scenario!"
 
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11m ago10.56 EDT
Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday that it warned Western countries against using the Wagner mercenary group’s mutiny “to achieve their Russophobic goals”, Reuters reports.

The ministry’s social media channels still remain active. On Twitter, it recently shared a post by Belarus’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs which stated its support of Russia and called the war in Ukraine a “battle for the future of the Slavic world”.

“We cannot remain aloof from the events happening in the south of Russia”, the post said.

The Russian foreign ministry also shared a video from the Russian embassy of Ambassador Andrei Kelin discussing frozen assets in the UK.
 
  • #460
4m ago11.05 EDT

Here is a summary of the events so far:

  • According to Ukrainian news agencies, Kyiv has liberated territories near the city of Krasnohorivka in Donetsk region, which have been occupied by pro-Russia separatists since 2014, during the Wagner mutiny in Russia.
  • The governor of Russia’s Lipetsk province says the Wagner mercenary group has entered the region, AP reports. The Lipetsk region is about 360km (225 miles) south of Moscow and much closer to the capital than Rostov-on-Don, where Wagner forces appeared during the night.
  • There have been numerous reports that Vladimir Putin’s presidential plane took off from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport at 2.16pm local time (1216 BST) and then headed north-west. It has not been possible to confirm whether Putin was on the plane and his spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has told the Tass news agency the president is “working in the Kremlin”.
  • Large amounts of cash were found during a raid on Prigozhin’s office, he has reportedly confirmed. Russian media had reported that money was found at the St Petersburg address, something Prigozhin has now confirmed, according to Reuters.
  • The UK government will hold an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss the situation in Russia, Reuters reports.
 

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