Ukraine: Putin killed Wagner boss and will use nuclear weapons, warns Zelensky – live

Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Vladimir Putin was behind the death of Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The mercenary leader died in an unexplained plane crash with his top lieutenants last month.

Ukrainian president Mr Zelensky made the claim on Friday but provided no evidence to back up his assertion made during a press conference in Kyiv.

“The fact that he killed Prigozhin – at least that’s the information we all have, not any other kind – that also speaks to his rationality, and about the fact that he is weak,” Mr Zelensky said.

The Kremlin says all possible causes of the crash will be investigated, including the possibility of foul play. It has called the suggestion that Russian president Mr Putin ordered the deaths of Mr Prigozhin and his men an “absolute lie”.

Mr Prigozhin this summer led a brief mutiny in Russia that posed the biggest challenge to Mr Putin’s rule since he rose to power in 1999. It prompted the Kremlin chief to accuse its authors of “treason” and a “stab in the back”.

Many critics of Mr Putin have died in unclear circumstances during his 23 years in power, or narrowly escaped dying.

The EU Council on Friday announced additional sanctions on six people for serious human rights violations in connection with their action towards members of ethnic groups in Crimea.

The individuals listed include prosecutors and judges active in courts established by Russia’s occupying force in Crimea who played a role in handing a prison term to a journalist who belongs to the Crimean Tatar community.

Friday’s listings also include two members of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) who either took part in torturing the journalist or participated in the investigation against him and members of the Crimean Tatar community and of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Crimea.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have asked Volodymyr Zelensky to send back some legislation that critics believe hampers an effort to hold officials accountable by delaying a requirement to publicly declare their assets.

Ukraine’s parliament voted on Tuesday to restore the declaration rule, which was suspended after Russia’s 2022 invasion as a security precaution, but – in a key loophole – to keep the disclosures closed to the public for another year.

Anti-graft campaigners and opposition lawmakers among others believe that defeats the primary purpose of the measure, which was first introduced as a showcase, pro-transparency reform after the 2014 Maidan Revolution that ousted a pro-Russian president.

A public petition asking Mr Zelensky to veto the amended measure had collected more than 83,000 signatures by Friday – well beyond the 25,000 needed for presidential consideration.

Corruption remains a top concern among Ukrainians, who have traditionally harboured deep distrust of most public officials.

Volodymyr Zelensky has used a press conference to say that Russian president Vladimir Putin could look to instil fear in the west with the threat of nuclear weapons. “Putin is left with just one step: instil fear in the west with his nuclear weapons,” the Ukrainian president said in Kyiv on Friday.

“There will be moments when they are moving their nuclear weapons from one place to another to exert pressure on the United States.”

The president also addressed the progress of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

“People tend to want everything immediately, and understandably so, but this is not a feature movie when everything can happen in an hour and a half,” he said.

“Some partners ask what’s up with the counteroffensive, what are the next steps. My current answer is ‘Our steps are faster than your sanction packages’.”

A senior Ukrainian official has said Elon Musk was “committing evil and encouraging evil” with his actions over his Starlink satellite which effectively stopped a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian warships.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, commented after claims made in a new biography of the billionaire written by Walter Isaacson.

Mr Isaacson wrote that Mr Musk called his engineers to stop his Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast last year to stop a Ukrainian submarine drone assault on Russia’s naval fleet.

After losing connectivity, the drones then washed ashore to the irritation of Ukrainian generals who had urged Mr Musk to turn the satellite back on.

Mr Musk had, according to Mr Isaacson, taken the action to avoid Russian retaliation with nuclear weapons.

But Mr Podolyak has hit out with a message on Twitter – a social media platform owned by Mr Musk.

His tweet on Friday read: “By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian fleet via Starlink interference, @elonmusk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities. As a result, civilians, and children are being killed,” Podolyak wrote.

“Why do some people so desperately want to defend war criminals and their desire to commit murder? And do they now realise that they are committing evil and encouraging evil?”

Mr Musk is yet to respond.

The first Leopard 1 tanks provided by Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, have arrived in Ukraine – it has been reported.

Denmark’s armed forces said on Friday that the first ten were now in the country and it is the first step to fulfiling the 100 that were promised in February.

“The first 10 tanks have been sent to Ukraine. And more are on the way,” the Danish armed forces said in a statement.

“A further 10 tanks have been delivered from the factory.”

AFP reported that Danish soldiers in Germany are training Ukrainian forces to use the tanks.

A Russian missile attack on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown in central Ukraine has killed one policeman and injured at least 44 others, emergency officials said.

The incident was one of several Russian attacks across the country overnight, officials said, and ten buildings were damaged in the attack on Kryvyi Rih.

Three of the people who were pulled out of the rubble were in serious condition, according to Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine‘s minister of internal affairs. Photos posted by Mr Klymenko on Telegram showed a building on fire and emergency services evacuating the injured.

Three people were also killed on Friday after a Russian bomb struck the village of Odradokamianka in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, Mr Klymenko said.

He added that three people were also injured in a Russian missile attack in the eastern city of Sumy.

Russian forces also struck the Odesa region in the west with drones for the fifth time in a week, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. No casualties were reported.

The strikes are now daily and on Tuesday the Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems destroyed two drones over the Kaluga and Tver regions, which border the Moscow region, as well as one closer to the capital, over the Istra district.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain has mapped the attacks:

The depleted uranium anti-tank rounds soon to be in Ukraine’s military stockpiles have kicked up a debate over its use in the continuing Russian invasion.