Very opaque, the Wagner group is reputed to be linked to the Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigojine, himself considered close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The presence of its fighters has been confirmed in recent years in Syria, Libya, Mali and other African countries.
The Ukrainian authorities also claimed that pro-kyiv saboteurs managed to blow up a railway bridge near the town of Melitopol (Zaropijjia region, south), occupied by the Russian army, in a new effort to disrupt the logistics of troops from Moscow.
“One less railway bridge to the southwest of Melitopol means a total absence of military trains from Crimea”, a peninsula annexed in 2014 by Russia and essential to the supplies of the Russian army, announced on Telegram the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov.
Several bridges targeted
Ukraine has targeted several bridges in recent weeks, mainly in the occupied region of Kherson (south), where kyiv says it is carrying out a counter-offensive that has made it possible to retake dozens of villages and now threaten Russian troops who have crossed the Dnieper river.
In the region of Odessa (south), on the Black Sea, three summer visitors were killed on Monday and two others injured while bathing on a beach in Zatoka, a popular seaside resort, by the detonation of a “machine unknown explosive,” a spokesman for the regional authorities, Serguiï Bratchouk, announced on Telegram.
And in the morning, Russian bombardments on Kharkiv (northeast), the second city of the country, left one dead, said on Facebook a senior local police official, Serguiï Bolvinov.
“At 11 a.m. Kharkiv was shelled. Nine people were injured. Unfortunately, a 75-year-old woman died in hospital from her injuries,” Kharkiv region governor Oleg Synegubov confirmed in a video posted on Telegram.
“There were other bombings elsewhere in the region,” he added. “Three people injured in these bombings have been hospitalized.”
In the Donetsk region (east), where the forces are currently concentrating their assault following having taken almost all of the neighboring region of Lugansk, “the situation remains tense” and “the front line is under bombs”, indicated regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko in a video posted on his Telegram channel.
“Sloviansk was shelled overnight. And almost every day Bakhmut, Siversk and Soledar are bombed,” he continued. “Mariinka, Krangogorivka and Avdiivka are also constantly shelled. Almost three quarters of the region’s population was evacuated. It still remains a quarter of the population.
