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
Iran says committed to diplomacy but acts in ‘self-defense’ against Israel

TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday his country has remained committed to “diplomacy” but will continue to act in “self-defense” following Israel’s surprise attack nearly a week ago.
“Iran solely acts in self-defense. Even in the face of the most outrageous aggression against our people, Iran has so far only retaliated against the Israeli regime and not those who are aiding and abetting it,” said Araghchi in a post on X.
“With the exception of the illegitimate, genocidal and occupying Israeli regime, we remain committed to diplomacy,” he added.
Putin says NATO rearmament not a ‘threat’ to Russia

Saint Petersburg: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that NATO’s push to ramp up defense spending was not a “threat” to Russia, as Moscow had all the weapons it needed to defend itself.
“We do not consider any rearmament by NATO to be a threat to the Russian Federation, because we are self-sufficient in terms of ensuring our own security,” Putin told reporters, including AFP, at a televised press conference in Saint Petersburg.
He added that Russia was “constantly modernizing our armed forces and defensive capabilities.”
Trump rebuffs Putin offer to mediate Iran-Israel truce

- “He actually offered to help mediate. I said, ‘Do me a favor, mediate your own’,” Trump said
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump appeared Wednesday to rebuff Vladimir Putin’s offer to mediate in the Israel-Iran conflict, saying the Russian president should end his own war in Ukraine first.
“I spoke to him yesterday and... he actually offered to help mediate, I said ‘do me a favor, mediate your own,’” Trump told reporters as he unveiled a giant new flag pole at the White House.
“Let’s mediate Russia first, okay? I said, Vladimir, let’s mediate Russia first, you can worry about this later.”
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov disputed the timing that Trump gave for the call.
“He (Trump) was speaking figuratively. Life is so eventful right now that looking back a few days is like looking back to yesterday,” Peskov told Russian state news agency TASS.
Trump and the Kremlin both previously said on Saturday that the two leaders had spoken that day, with the US president saying Putin had called to wish him a happy 79th birthday.
Later on Wednesday, Trump said a change in Iran’s government “could happen,” and also indicated that negotiations could be on the horizon, without giving details.
“They want to meet, they want to come to the White House — I may do that,” Trump told reporters.
Trump meanwhile insisted that the stalled peace talks to end the Ukraine war were “going to work out” despite Moscow stepping up attacks.
The US president had vowed to end the war within 24 hours of taking office and made a major pivot toward Putin, but talks have so far made little progress.
Trump described the Ukraine war, sparked by Russia’s invasion of its pro-Western neighbor in 2022, as “so stupid.”
Leaked call between Thai PM and Cambodia ‘strongman’ stokes tensions

- Thai PM says leak shows ‘trust problem’ with Cambodian ex-premier
BANGKOK, Phnom Penh: Relations between Thailand and Cambodia suffered a major blow on Wednesday after a leak of a telephone conversation between Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and influential former Cambodian Premier Hun Sen that could further escalate tensions.
Ties between the two neighbors are at their worst in more than a decade after a row over border territory that has sparked fears of a military confrontation following a sharp rise in nationalist rhetoric and the mobilization of troops on both sides of their frontier.
The leaked June 15 phone call, which has been confirmed as authentic by both Hun Sen and Paetongtarn, shows the Thai premier telling Hun Sen, whom she called uncle, that she is under domestic pressure and urging him not to listen to “the opposite side” which includes a prominent Thai military commander at the border.
“He just want to look cool and saying things that are not useful to the nation, but in truth what we want is peace,” she told Hun Sen through a translator in the leaked audio clip, referring to the general.
Paetongtarn later told reporters her conversation with Hun Sen was part of a negotiation tactic and she has no problem with the Thai army.
“I won’t be talking privately with him (Hun Sen) anymore because there is a trust problem,” she said.
Hun Sen said the leak came from one of the 80 politicians he shared the audio recording with. Self-styled strongman Hun Sen was Cambodia’s premier for nearly four decades and has maintained a high public profile since handing over power in 2023 to his son, Prime Minister Hun Manet.
The two governments had until recently enjoyed warm ties, helped by the close relationship between Hun Sen and Thailand’s former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn’s influential father. Both former leaders are still active in politics.
Fierce rhetoric
The leak could put that relationship in jeopardy and will add to speculation in Thailand that Paetongtarn and the powerful Thai military are at odds on how to respond to the border crisis with Cambodia.
Cambodia’s rhetoric has become more fierce in the past week, with Hun Sen blaming Thai “extremists” and the Thai army for stoking tensions, saying Paetongtarn’s government was “unable to control its military the way our country can.”
The billionaire Shinawatra family has a troubled history with the army, with two of its governments ousted by generals in coups in 2006 and 2014.
Lt. Gen. Boonsin Padklang, commander of Thailand’s Second Army Area overseeing the eastern border, on Wednesday told local media that Paetongtarn had called him to explain the leak.
“I don’t have any issue, I understand,” Boonsin said. The weeks-long standoff followed a brief border skirmish on May 28 that left a Cambodian soldier dead. Both countries have called for calm while vowing to defend their sovereignty over contested stretches of a 820-km (510-mile) land border, parts of which are undemarcated. Attempts to settle the issue have failed, with Cambodia on Sunday delivering on its vow to seek resolution at the International Court of Justice, the jurisdiction of which Thailand says it does not recognize.
On Wednesday, Cambodia’s defense ministry said Thailand had again violated its sovereignty with drone flights, trench digging and troop deployments, which Bangkok rejected.
Thousands of Cambodians joined a state-organized march in the capital Phnom Penh on Wednesday to support the government, shouting slogans, waving national flags and holding portraits of Hun Manet and Hun Sen.
“Cambodia’s land! We won’t take others’ land, we keep our land!” some chanted.
France plans European ‘initiative’ to end Iran-Israel conflict: presidency

- France, UK and Germany were involved in talks that led to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers
- French president urged Israel to end strikes on targets in Iran not linked to nuclear activities or ballistic missiles
PARIS: France is planning along with European partners to suggest a negotiated solution to end the conflict between Iran and Israel, President Emmanuel Macron’s office said Wednesday.
At a national security council meeting, Macron ordered Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot to draw up in the coming days “an initiative with close European partners that would propose a demanding negotiated settlement to put an end to the conflict,” it said, without giving details on the nature of the plan.
Barrot has been in regular touch with his German and British counterparts since Israel launched massive air strikes against Iran on Friday.
All three countries were involved in talks that led to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for relief from sanctions.
The United States withdrew from that accord during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Macron also urged Israel to end strikes on targets in Iran not linked to nuclear activities or ballistic missiles.
He voice “concern over the current escalation, with Israeli strikes increasingly hitting targets not linked to Iran’s nuclear or ballistic program, and a mounting number of civilian victims in Iran and Israel,” his office said.
He said it was “necessary to urgently end these military operations, which pose significant threats to regional security,” it added.
The French president also urged the foreign ministry to take measures to help French citizens leave Israel or Iran if they wished to do so, the Elysee added, without providing further details.