Ukraine live briefing: Belarus leader says Wagner’s Prigozhin is in Russia; four killed in Lviv attack
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday that the leader of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, is no longer in Belarus but back in Russia. Prigozhin agreed to move to neighboring Belarus after staging a failed rebellion against Russian defense officials. “As for Prigozhin, he is in St. Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus,” Lukashenko told the country’s state-owned BelTA news agency. He said on June 27 that Prigozhin was in Belarus as part of a deal between Moscow and the Wagner Group that Lukashenko claimed to have brokered. The Washington Post could not independently verify his claims.
In Ukraine, the death toll from a rocket attack in the western city of Lviv rose to at least four, with 34 people injured, regional Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy said on Telegram on Thursday, after explosions rocked the city. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi called it the largest attack on civilian infrastructure in the city since the war began. Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, also decried the attack, sharing a video of the damage and labeling it “another night of terror” that targeted civilians far from the front lines.
Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe.
While both sides dialed up the rhetoric, an analysis published Wednesday by the Institute for the Study of War said it was unlikely that Moscow would create a nuclear disaster. The escalation in provocative statements is probably intended to accuse Ukraine of irresponsible behavior near the plant as NATO readies to meet next week, the D.C.-based think tank said.
