Extract from ABC News
Kyiv says its troops have recaptured a village from Russian forces in Ukraine's south-east, the first liberated settlement they have claimed since launching a counterattack this week.
Key points:
- Ukraine reports recapturing a village on the edge of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions
- Yevgeny Prigozhin says the Wagner group's highly efficient command structure would be damaged by reporting to the defence minister
- Ukraine says Russia attacked a flood evacuation boat, killing three people
Soldiers hoisted the Ukrainian flag at a bombed-out building in an unverified video published by Ukraine's 68th Jaeger Brigade on Sunday, which identified the settlement as Blahodatne in Donetsk region.
"We're seeing the first results of the counter-offensive actions, localised results," Valeryi Shershen, spokesperson for Ukraine's "Tavria" military sector, said on television.
He said the village lay on the edge of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions a few kilometres south of the Kyiv-controlled village of Velyka Novosilka.
The video from Blahodatne showed Ukrainian troops inside a heavily damaged building as the sound of artillery rumbled in the distance.
"We're kicking the enemy out from our native lands," an unidentified soldier said in the video on Facebook.
"It's the warmest feeling there is. Ukraine is going to win, Ukraine above everything."
Russia said at least twice this week that it had repelled Ukrainian attacks close by the nearby settlement of Velyka Novosilka.
The occupied south-east is seen as a likely priority for Kyiv's forces that may aim to threaten Russia's land bridge to the annexed peninsula of Crimea and split Russian forces in half.
Blahodatne is around 95km north-west of the city of Mariupol, which lies on the Sea of Azov on the southern rim of the land bridge.
Russia captured the major city last year after besieging and bombarding it.
Russia has built vast fortifications across occupied territory to prepare for a Ukrainian counterattack using thousands of troops trained and equipped by the West.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday gave his strongest signal yet that Kyiv has launched its long-awaited counterattack to seize back land in the east and south, confirming that "counteroffensive and defensive operations" were taking place.
Mr Putin said on Friday that a Ukrainian military push was well underway, but that it had failed so far to breach Russian defensive lines and taken heavy casualties.
Wagner boss defies Russia's Defence Ministry
Russia's most powerful mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin has said his Wagner fighters would not sign any contract with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, publicly refusing an attempt by the Defence Ministry to bring his fighting force under its sway.
The Defence Ministry on Saturday said Mr Shoigu had ordered all "volunteer detachments" to sign contracts with his ministry by the end of the month, a step it said would increase the effectiveness of the Russian army.
Though the ministry did not mention Wagner in its public statement, the Russian media reported that it was an attempt by Mr Shoigu to bring the mercenaries to heel.
"These measures will increase the combat capabilities and effectiveness of the armed forces and their volunteer detachments," Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov said.
Mr Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner group, has repeatedly attacked President Vladimir Putin's top military brass for what he casts as treachery for failing to fight the war in Ukraine properly.
Neither Mr Shoigu nor Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov have commented in public on the insults from Mr Prigozhin, whose forces in May took the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after a battle in which tens of thousands perished.
"Wagner will not sign any contracts with Shoigu," Mr Prigozhin said in response to a request for comment on the matter.
The order, he said, did not apply to Wagner.
The Defence Ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Mr Prigozhin said Wagner was completely subordinate to the interests of Russia but that its highly efficient command structure would be damaged by reporting to Mr Shoigu.
"Shoigu cannot properly manage military formations," Mr Prigozhin said, adding that Wagner coordinated its actions in Ukraine with General Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian media.
Mr Prigozhin said the ministry might use the failure to comply with the order as a reason to deprive Wagner of supplies.
"What could happen after this order is that they will not give us weapons and ammunition. We will figure it out, as they say," Mr Prigozhin said.
"But when the thunder breaks, they will come running and bring weapons and ammunition with a request to help."
Russia and Ukraine swap prisoners
Russia and Ukraine announced simultaneously the return of nearly 100 soldiers from each side.
Russia's Defence Ministry said 94 Russians in Ukrainian captivity had been released after negotiations and would be taken to a medical institution to be examined.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential administration, said 95 Ukrainian service members had been returned, including some wounded.
They included members of the national guard and border guards.
Mr Yermak said those released had been in action near the city of Mariupol, under Russian siege for weeks last year, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, briefly held last year by Russian forces, from Snake Island in the Black Sea and from Bakhmut, still a focal point of fighting in the east.
Russia attacked evacuation boat, Ukraine says
Three people were killed on Sunday and 10 were wounded when Russian forces attacked a boat carrying evacuees from flooded occupied territory to the Ukrainian-controlled city of Kherson, the regional governor said.
The area has been stricken by catastrophic flooding after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam which Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of deliberately blowing up.
"Three civilians died, ten more (people) were wounded, including two law enforcement officers," said Kherson region's Governor, Oleksandr Prokudin.
In a statement on Telegram messenger, he said a 74-year-old man used his body to shield a woman from Russian fire and was hit in the back and died.
Mr Prokudin's statement did not make clear how Russian forces attacked the boat.
The incident was first reported by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff Andriy Yermak who said the boat had been carrying evacuees from flooded areas of occupied territory to the city of Kherson.
"The Russian army attacked a boat with civilians evacuating from the left bank of Kherson region," Mr Yermak wrote on the Telegram messenger.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the attack.
Russia says Ukraine attacks a Russian vessel patrolling Black Sea
Russia has claimed Ukraine made an unsuccessful attempt to attack a Russian naval ship with six high-speed drone boats as the vessel patrolled major natural gas pipelines in the Black Sea.
The ship was carrying out what Russia's Defence Ministry said was "monitoring of the situation and ensuring security along the routes of the TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipelines in the south-eastern part of the Black Sea".
Ukraine attacked in the early hours of Sunday about 300 km south-east of Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea fleet on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, the Defence Ministry said.
Russia and Turkey formally launched TurkStream with capacity of 31.5 billion cubic metres per year in January 2020.
The pipeline, which allows Moscow to bypass Ukraine as a transit route to Europe, carries Russian natural gas to southern Europe through the Black Sea and Turkey.
The Blue Stream pipeline delivers Russian gas to Turkey.
Reuters
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