KYIV: The owner of Russia’s Wagner Group military contractor claimed Wednesday that his troops have extended their gains in the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut, but it remained unclear how long the grinding fight might go on.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Kyiv for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky on extending an agreement that allows Ukraine to ship grain from its Black Sea ports and permits Russia to export food and fertilizers.
The battle for the city the Ukrainians have dubbed “fortress Bakhmut” has become emblematic of the way each side has tried to wear down the other. Russian forces must go through Bakhmut to push deeper into parts of the Donetsk province they do not yet control, though Western officials say that capture of the city is unlikely to change the course of the war.
The battle for Bakhmut has lasted six months and reduced the city with a prewar population of more than 70,000 to a smoldering wasteland. It’s not clear which side has paid a higher price.
Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose troops have spearheaded the fight in Bakhmut, said they have taken full control of all districts east of the Bakhmutka River that crosses the city. The city’s center lies west of the river.
Neither Russian nor Ukrainian officials commented on Prigozhin’s claim. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank that closely monitors the fighting, said Russian forces were likely in control in the areas cited by Prigozhin following a Ukrainian withdrawal.
Russian troops have enveloped the city from three sides, leaving only a narrow corridor leading west. The only highway west has been targeted by Russian artillery fire, forcing Ukrainian defenders to rely increasingly on country roads, which are hard to use before the muddy ground dries.
Zelensky vowed Monday not to retreat from Bakhmut after chairing a meeting with his top generals.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that seizing the city would allow Russia to press its offensive farther into the Donetsk region, one of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed in September.
In a blustery video statement recorded near a World War II monument in Bakhmut, Prigozhin echoed that rationale, saying the prospective Russian push would make “the entire world shudder.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged that the Russians could seize the city soon.
“What we see is that Russia is throwing in more troops, more forces, and what Russia lacks in quality they try to make up in quantity,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an EU defense ministers meeting in Stockholm. “They have suffered big losses, but at the same time we cannot rule out that Bakhmut may eventually fall in the coming days.”
But like other Western officials, he played down the significance of Bakhmut’s potential capture, arguing that this “does not necessarily reflect any turning point of the war, and it just highlights that we should not underestimate Russia.”
The Ukrainian military has already strengthened defensive lines west of Bakhmut to block the Russian advance, including in the nearby town of Chasiv Yar that sits on a hill. Farther west are the heavily fortified Ukrainian strongholds of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
The ISW observed that Russia was also likely short of the mechanized forces it would need to push on from Bakhmut.
On Wednesday, Russian forces shelled scores of towns and villages in the Donetsk region and other areas in Ukraine’s east and south, Ukraine’s presidential office said.
In Kyiv, UN chief Guterres was discussing the possibility of extending the agreement that has kept at least some of the country’s exports flowing.
Ukraine and Russia are leading global suppliers of wheat, sunflower oil and other agricultural products, and Moscow’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine drove food prices higher across the world.
The current 120-day agreement expires on March 18, and Guterres said extending it for a second time is of “critical importance.”
“Exports of Ukrainian — as well as Russian — food and fertilizers are essential to global food security and food prices,” Guterres said.
In other developments:
— Germany’s defense minister voiced caution over media reports that a pro-Ukraine group was involved in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last year, as some media have reported. Boris Pistorius said more information is needed to understand who was behind the explosion — and whether they acted with the Ukrainian government’s knowledge.
— Pistorius also said nearly two dozen advanced battle tanks provided by European countries will arrive in Ukraine in the coming weeks. He said that included 18 German Leopard 2 tanks and three from Portugal. The Leopards are part of a larger package of heavy tanks Western countries recently promised to Ukraine.
— A top European Union court has annulled the bloc’s sanctions against the mother of Wagner Group owner Prigozhin because the measures are based solely on the fact that the two are related. Violetta Prigozhina was put on the EU sanctions list because she was considered to be the owner of Concord Management and Consulting LLC, part of the group founded and owned until 2019 by her son. But the Luxembourg-based General Court said she stopped being owner of the company in 2017, even though she did retain some shares in it.
— Authorities in the Russian-held city of Enerhodar, which is the main residential area for workers at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, said Ukrainian drones dropped incendiary devices along a river embankment, setting off fires that spread and endangered power lines.
Russian forces claim progress in Bakhmut but no end in sight
https://arab.news/5h33j
Russian forces claim progress in Bakhmut but no end in sight

- The battle for Bakhmut has lasted six months and reduced the city with a prewar population of more than 70,000 to a smoldering wasteland
- Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose troops have spearheaded the fight in Bakhmut, said they have taken full control of all districts east of the Bakhmutka River
Athens’ ancient theater closes for three-year restoration

ATHENS: For visitors to Athens, the ancient Odeon of Herod Atticus is the must-see theater at the foot of the Acropolis. Artists revere it for the majestic stage where legends have performed. And for the Greek capital’s residents it is the touchstone of their summer cultural calendar.
The Odeon of Herod Atticus recently opened the 70th season of the annual Athens Epidaurus Festival, a cherished annual tradition for many Greeks. But this edition marks the last before the theater that’s more than 18 centuries old shuts down for maintenance and restoration work that is expected to last at least three years.
While theater and dance grace its stage, music is its cornerstone. Renowned artists who have performed here include Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Coldplay, and Greece’s own Maria Callas.
Its closure will be a profound loss for spectators who have long enjoyed first-class performances under the stars in one of the world’s most iconic open-air theaters.
“When (people) think of the Athens cultural scene, everyone thinks of the festival and Herodion,” said Katerina Evangelatos, the festival’s artistic director since 2019, calling the theater by its commonly used Greek name. “It has become a synonym of the festival. It is the heart of the festival.”
Seven soldiers killed in clash with Al-Shabab terrorists

KAMPALA: At least seven Ugandan soldiers have been killed in Somalia, an army spokesperson said Sunday, part of the ongoing fight against the Al-Shabab terrorist group.
The soldiers were part of the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia, or AUSSOM, tasked with combating Al-Shabab.
Recent attacks have stoked fears of a terrorist resurgence in the Horn of Africa nation, especially coming as AUSSOM struggles with insufficient troops and funding shortfalls.
The losses came during a three-day siege over a town in the Lower Shabelle region, a Ugandan Defense Ministry statement said, adding the town was recaptured from Al-Shabab.
“Unfortunately, we lost seven soldiers during the battle,” said Ugandan People’s Defense Force spokesman Felix Kulayigye,
AUSSOM, which replaced the previous ATMIS deployment, currently has 11,146 soldiers — although it stated in April it required an additional 8,000.
Somalia has long struggled with the violent insurgency, although the Al-Qaeda-linked group had been forced onto the defensive in 2022 and 2023 by Somali forces backed by African Union-led peacekeepers.
Recent attacks in key towns have provoked worries of the organization’s resurgence, with the militants targeting President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s convoy in capital, Mogadishu in March.
US orders more diplomatic staff to leave Iraq, Lebanon

- Washington has a ‘do not travel’ advisory in place for Lebanon
- More diplomatic personnel left Iraq on Saturday and Sunday
BAGHDAD: The United States has ordered staff from its diplomatic missions in Iraq and Lebanon to leave the countries, with the departures taking place as American strikes on Sunday targeted nuclear facilities in nearby Iran.
More diplomatic personnel left Iraq on Saturday and Sunday as part of ongoing efforts to “streamline operations,” a US official told AFP.
The departures were a continuation of a process that started last week “out of an abundance of caution and due to heightened regional tensions,” the official added.
In Lebanon, the US embassy said the State Department on Sunday had ordered staffers’ family members and non-emergency US government personnel to leave the country.
A statement on the embassy website cited “the volatile and unpredictable security situation in the region.”
Earlier in the day, Washington joined Israel’s war against Iran, with US President Donald Trump announcing strikes on the Islamic republic’s main nuclear sites.
After the strikes, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned that bases in the region used to launch US attacks “will be considered legitimate targets.”
Fears were also growing over possible intervention by Iran-backed armed factions around the Middle East, who have threatened Washington’s interests should it join Israel’s campaign.
Israel has already fought a war in Lebanon with the Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah, leaving it badly weakened before a ceasefire took hold in November.
On Sunday, Hezbollah said the US strikes revealed “the true face of the United States of America as the largest threat to regional and international security and stability.”
The group has not previously expressed any intention to intervene militarily on Iran’s side, but its chief Naim Qassem said last week that it would “act as we see fit.”
Washington has a “do not travel” advisory in place for Lebanon.
Iraq, meanwhile, has for years navigated a delicate balancing act between its allies Tehran and Washington, has also long been a fertile ground for proxy battles.
On Sunday, the Iraqi government expressed “its deep concern and strong condemnation of the targeting of nuclear facilities” in Iran, spokesperson Basim Alawadi said.
“This military escalation constitutes a grave threat to peace and security in the Middle East and poses serious risks to regional stability,” he added.
Air India cuts narrowbody jet routes, suspends international flights after deadly crash

- This is the second such reduction after the crash killed all but one of 242 people aboard this month
- The airline said in a post on X that the reductions will strengthen its network-wide operational stability
NEW DELHI: Air India said on Sunday it is temporarily reducing less than 5 percent of its narrowbody jet routes for “operational stability,” its second such reduction following a plane crash earlier this month that killed all but one of the 242 people on board.
The airline, reeling from the deadliest crash in decades, said in a post on X that the cuts will strengthen its network-wide operational stability.
Two daily flights from India to Singapore will be suspended along with disruptions on 19 domestic routes until July 15, it said.
On June 18, the airline cut international operations on its widebody aircraft by 15 percent, citing ongoing safety inspections and operational disruptions.
UK govt plan to ban Palestine Action ‘absurd’

- Member: Proscription would ‘rip apart the very basic concepts of British democracy’
- Amnesty International UK: ‘Terrorism powers shouldn’t be used to ban them’
LONDON: A member of the UK’s Palestine Action, which on Friday carried out a high-profile protest by breaking into an air force base, has described government plans to proscribe the group as “absurd.”
Saeed Taji Farouky told the BBC that the plan to effectively brand the group a terrorist organization “rips apart the very basic concepts of British democracy and the rule of law.” He added: “It’s something everyone should be terrified about.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is believed to be drafting a written statement on the proscription to be delivered before Parliament on Monday, the BBC reported.
It follows a protest by two members of Palestine Action who broke into RAF Brize Norton and sprayed red paint inside the jet engines of two military aircraft.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer branded the protest “disgraceful,” and the story has raised questions in the national media over the security of British bases.
Farouky told the BBC that he had been convicted for criminal damage after a separate Palestine Action event.
The government move to proscribe the group is a “knee-jerk reaction” that is “being rushed through,” he added.
Palestine Action’s “whole reason for being is to break the material supply chain to genocide,” he said, describing the break-in on Friday as an “escalation in tactics because the genocide has escalated.”
RAF Brize Norton is a hub for strategic air transport and refueling operations, and military aircraft regularly fly from there to the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus, which serves as an operational center for British reconnaissance flights over Gaza.
After the Brize Norton protest, a Palestine Action spokesperson said: “Despite publicly condemning the Israeli government, Britain continues to send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel US and Israeli fighter jets.”
After self-recorded footage of the break-in was posted online, counterterrorism police launched an investigation. The government also launched a security review of military bases across Britain.
Amnesty International UK on Friday said it is “deeply concerned” over the use of British counterterrorism to target protests.
“Terrorism powers should never have been used to aggravate criminal charges against Palestine Action activists and they certainly shouldn’t be used to ban them,” it said.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza, Palestine Action has carried out protests against arms companies, including Israel’s Elbit Systems, which operates factories in Britain.
Jonathan Hall, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the BBC that the group had “gone beyond protest to blackmail.”
He added: “It’s got to a point where they’ve started to say: ‘We will carry on causing hundreds of millions of pounds worth of damage unless you stop.’”
The UK has proscribed 81 groups as terrorist organizations under the Terrorism Act 2000.