Putin blames Ukrainian counteroffensive for lack of ceasefire
From CNN's Zahra Ullah and Maria Kostenko
As Russia's war against Ukraine rages on, and Kyiv escalates its counteroffensive, Russian President Vladimir Putin says a ceasefire is hard to implement.
He made the claim at a carefully orchestrated press event attended by a small group of Russian media in St. Petersburg.
Putin said Moscow has never rejected peace negotiations with Ukraine. In order to start the process to end the war, an agreement is needed from both sides, but it is difficult to reach one while Ukraine's army is on the offense, the Russian leader said.
This week at a summit with African leaders, Putin said he was considering a peace peace initiative proposed by the leaders and blamed Kyiv for not coming to the table.
But Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out any peace negotiations with Russia until Moscow’s troops withdraw from his country’s territory. Zelensky said allowing any negotiations while another nation's military is occupying Ukraine would only "freeze" the war, pain and suffering caused by Putin's invasion.
Ukraine's purported losses: Putin also said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces lost 415 of its tanks and 1,300 armored vehicles since June 4.
When asked for comment by CNN on the Russian leader's claims, Serhii Cherevatyi, the deputy commander of the Ukraine military's Eastern Group for Strategic Communications, joked that "if we really had so much (material), we'd already be in Moscow."
It seems to me that he is living in his own universe," Cherevatyi said.
On critics: When asked by a journalist about the arrest of people in Russia who are critical of his leadership during the armed conflict with Ukraine, Putin replied:
"We are in 2023 and the Russian Federation is in a state of armed conflict with a neighbor. I think that there should be a certain attitude towards those people who harm us within the country."
1 hr 21 min ago
Over 100 Wagner fighters move toward border with Poland and Lithuania, Polish prime minister says
From CNN’s Martin Goillandeau, Sharon Braithwaite and Oleg Racz
More than 100 Wagner Group mercenaries have moved toward the Suwałki corridor, a small stretch of NATO territory separating the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad from Belarus, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday.
Morawiecki called it “a step toward a further hybrid attack on Polish territory.”
Poland’s government has used the term “hybrid attack” to describe attempts by the neighboring Belarusian regime to manipulate the flow of migrants through the area, putting pressure on the EU over sanctions against Minsk. Polish officials have said that its ally Russia helps Belarus with this scheme.
“We have an information that more than 100 Wagner Group mercenaries have moved towards the Suwałki corridor, not far from (the Belarusian city of) Grodno. Why did they do it? This is certainly a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory,” Morawiecki said in a speech at a mechanical plant in southern Poland.
So far this year, there have been about 16,000 attempts by migrants to cross the border illegally, "pushed to Poland" by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mateusz said.
The prime minister warned, according to the Polish Press Agency, that Wagner mercenaries may try to pose as migrants in order to cross from Belarus into Poland.
"They will probably be disguised as Belarusian border guards and will help illegal immigrants to enter Polish territory, destabilize Poland, but they will also probably try to infiltrate Poland pretending to be illegal immigrants and this creates additional risks," he said.
Rising tensions: This is the latest example of regional tensions inflamed by Lukashenko welcoming Wagner troops into his country following their short-lived rebellion against Moscow.
Belarus announced earlier in July that its forces will hold joint exercises with Wagner fighters near the border with Poland. Putin also made a series of unsubstantiated allegations last week, accusing Poland of harboring plans to "directly intervene" in the war and "tear off" parts of Ukraine for itself, also claiming Warsaw has aspirations to annex parts of Belarus.
Germany has pledged NATO would defend alliance member Poland in case of an attack.
More on the Suwałki corridor: This thin strip of land, also known as theSuwałki gap, is the only overland link between the Baltic states — NATO members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — and the rest of the European Union. The corridor separates the Russian standalone region of Kaliningrad from Belarus and connects Polish and Lithuanian territory.
Kaliningrad was captured by Soviet troops from Nazi Germany in April 1945 and then became part of Soviet territory as a result of the Potsdam Agreement. It was renamed from the German Königsberg in 1946.
In 2002, the EU and Moscow reached an agreement on travel between Russia and Kaliningrad, ahead of Poland and Lithuania joining the European Union in 2004. When those countries joined, the exclave became surrounded on three sides by EU territory.
Russia says the 2002 agreement has now been violated, with Lithuania banning the flow of sanctioned goods across its territory. But the government in Vilnius says it is merely upholding EU sanctions introduced following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has not acknowledged that it has nuclear weapons based in Kaliningrad, but in 2018 the Federation of American Scientists concluded that Russia had significantly modernized a nuclear weapons storage bunker in the region, based on analysis of satellite imagery.
CNN's Tim Lister and Rob Picheta contributed reporting to this post.
1 hr 22 min ago
Christmas in Ukraine will now officially be on December 25, in move away from Russian Orthodox Church
From CNN's Konstantin Toropin and Alex Stambaugh
Ukraine has passed legislation moving its official Christmas holiday to December 25, further distancing itself from the traditions of the Putin-aligned Russian Orthodox Church, which celebrates the holiday on January 7.
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the bill into law on Friday after it was passed by Ukraine’s parliament earlier this month.
The legislation’s sponsors said its passage would help Ukraine "abandon the Russian heritage of imposing the celebration of Christmas on January 7," and help Ukrainians "live their own life with their own traditions (and) holidays."
Ukraine and Russia are both majority Orthodox countries, but since Russia illegally annexed Crimea and began supporting separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in 2014, a large part of the Orthodox community in Ukraine has moved away from Moscow.
Russia’s war in Ukraine further accelerated the divide between the two branches of Orthodox Christianity, especially given that the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, fully endorsed the invasion and framed it as a culture clash between the wider Russian world and Western liberal values.
The new law will effectively formalize what some churches in Ukraine had already begun practicing. A branch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine allowed its churches to celebrate Christmas on December 25 last year. Ukraine’s main Greek Catholic church said in February it was moving to a new calendar to celebrate Christmas on December 25 as well.
Tetyana, an Orthodox Christian from Kyiv, said the date was not important for her, but she was ready to support the move because of its symbolic value.
“If necessary, we will celebrate on December 25. It is no longer about religion, it is more a sign of statehood. Let it be so. I support the president and my country,” she said.
Zelensky visits troops near Bakhmut area to mark military holiday
From CNN's Radina Gigova and Svitlana Vlasova
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he traveled to the Bakhmut area of eastern Ukraine to visit troops and present them with state awards on Saturday, which marks Special Operations Forces Day in Ukraine.
"Today, I am here to congratulate our warriors on their professional day, to honor their strength," Zelensky said in a post on his official Twitter account Saturday, accompanied by several pictures. "I heard a commander's report, talked with the warriors. Very powerful, very effective. Thank you!"
Zelensky said he visited "advanced positions" of the forces, but that he could not go into details about their current mission.
Images and video released by his office showed the president talking to soldiers at a local gas station, drinking coffee and taking pictures with them. Zelensky referred to the meeting as a "traditional coffee talk."
Zelensky went to a command post for special forces tactical groups in the town of Chasiv Yar, which is located about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) west of Bakhmut.
In addition to Chasiv Yar, Zelensky also visited the cities Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, his office said.
"An important day for Ukraine, for the Armed Forces. It is a pleasure to congratulate you. It is clear that the situation is not easy, but you are powerful people. I wish you strength, health and victory," Zelensky said.
Anniversary of prison attack: Zelensky also mentioned the anniversary of a strike on a detention center in Olenivka, where more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners were killed last year.
"Today is the anniversary of Olenivka, one of the most vile and cruel crimes of Russia. The deliberate, pre-planned killing of captured Azov warriors," Zelensky said.
An extensive CNN investigation published in August last year demonstrated that the Russian narrative claiming the camp in Olenivka had been hit by a Ukrainian HIMARS rocket did not stand up to scrutiny. The Office of the UN Human Rights Commissioner has also supported the findings of the investigation.
CNN's Tim Lister and Gianluca Mezzofiore contributed reporting.
Russia said it brought down three Ukrainian drones trying to attack Moscow, the second reported attack on Russia's capital in a week. Russia also said it intercepted more than two dozen drones in occupied Crimea.
Russia held its Navy Day parade St. Petersburg. Among the guests were four African leaders who took part in a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin on Saturday said he has never rejected peace talks with Ukraine, saying a ceasefire is hard to implement amid Ukraine's counteroffensive. Kyiv has ruled out negotiations until Russia withdraws from its territory.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said a small group of Wagner fighters were moving towards Poland's border and could pose as migrants to cross.
As Russia's war against Ukraine rages on, and Kyiv escalates its counteroffensive, Russian President Vladimir Putin says a ceasefire is hard to implement.
He made the claim at a carefully orchestrated press event attended by a small group of Russian media in St. Petersburg.
Putin said Moscow has never rejected peace negotiations with Ukraine. In order to start the process to end the war, an agreement is needed from both sides, but it is difficult to reach one while Ukraine's army is on the offense, the Russian leader said.
This week at a summit with African leaders, Putin said he was considering a peace peace initiative proposed by the leaders and blamed Kyiv for not coming to the table.
But Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out any peace negotiations with Russia until Moscow’s troops withdraw from his country’s territory. Zelensky said allowing any negotiations while another nation's military is occupying Ukraine would only "freeze" the war, pain and suffering caused by Putin's invasion.
Ukraine's purported losses: Putin also said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces lost 415 of its tanks and 1,300 armored vehicles since June 4.
When asked for comment by CNN on the Russian leader's claims, Serhii Cherevatyi, the deputy commander of the Ukraine military's Eastern Group for Strategic Communications, joked that "if we really had so much (material), we'd already be in Moscow."
It seems to me that he is living in his own universe," Cherevatyi said.
On critics: When asked by a journalist about the arrest of people in Russia who are critical of his leadership during the armed conflict with Ukraine, Putin replied:
"We are in 2023 and the Russian Federation is in a state of armed conflict with a neighbor. I think that there should be a certain attitude towards those people who harm us within the country."
More than 100 Wagner Group mercenaries have moved toward the Suwałki corridor, a small stretch of NATO territory separating the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad from Belarus, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday.
Morawiecki called it “a step toward a further hybrid attack on Polish territory.”
Poland’s government has used the term “hybrid attack” to describe attempts by the neighboring Belarusian regime to manipulate the flow of migrants through the area, putting pressure on the EU over sanctions against Minsk. Polish officials have said that its ally Russia helps Belarus with this scheme.
“We have an information that more than 100 Wagner Group mercenaries have moved towards the Suwałki corridor, not far from (the Belarusian city of) Grodno. Why did they do it? This is certainly a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory,” Morawiecki said in a speech at a mechanical plant in southern Poland.
So far this year, there have been about 16,000 attempts by migrants to cross the border illegally, "pushed to Poland" by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mateusz said.
The prime minister warned, according to the Polish Press Agency, that Wagner mercenaries may try to pose as migrants in order to cross from Belarus into Poland.
"They will probably be disguised as Belarusian border guards and will help illegal immigrants to enter Polish territory, destabilize Poland, but they will also probably try to infiltrate Poland pretending to be illegal immigrants and this creates additional risks," he said.
Rising tensions: This is the latest example of regional tensions inflamed by Lukashenko welcoming Wagner troops into his country following their short-lived rebellion against Moscow.
Belarus announced earlier in July that its forces will hold joint exercises with Wagner fighters near the border with Poland. Putin also made a series of unsubstantiated allegations last week, accusing Poland of harboring plans to "directly intervene" in the war and "tear off" parts of Ukraine for itself, also claiming Warsaw has aspirations to annex parts of Belarus.
Germany has pledged NATO would defend alliance member Poland in case of an attack.
More on the Suwałki corridor: This thin strip of land, also known as theSuwałki gap, is the only overland link between the Baltic states — NATO members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — and the rest of the European Union. The corridor separates the Russian standalone region of Kaliningrad from Belarus and connects Polish and Lithuanian territory.
Kaliningrad was captured by Soviet troops from Nazi Germany in April 1945 and then became part of Soviet territory as a result of the Potsdam Agreement. It was renamed from the German Königsberg in 1946.
In 2002, the EU and Moscow reached an agreement on travel between Russia and Kaliningrad, ahead of Poland and Lithuania joining the European Union in 2004. When those countries joined, the exclave became surrounded on three sides by EU territory.
Russia says the 2002 agreement has now been violated, with Lithuania banning the flow of sanctioned goods across its territory. But the government in Vilnius says it is merely upholding EU sanctions introduced following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has not acknowledged that it has nuclear weapons based in Kaliningrad, but in 2018 the Federation of American Scientists concluded that Russia had significantly modernized a nuclear weapons storage bunker in the region, based on analysis of satellite imagery.
CNN's Tim Lister and Rob Picheta contributed reporting to this post.
Ukraine has passed legislation moving its official Christmas holiday to December 25, further distancing itself from the traditions of the Putin-aligned Russian Orthodox Church, which celebrates the holiday on January 7.
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the bill into law on Friday after it was passed by Ukraine’s parliament earlier this month.
The legislation’s sponsors said its passage would help Ukraine "abandon the Russian heritage of imposing the celebration of Christmas on January 7," and help Ukrainians "live their own life with their own traditions (and) holidays."
Ukraine and Russia are both majority Orthodox countries, but since Russia illegally annexed Crimea and began supporting separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in 2014, a large part of the Orthodox community in Ukraine has moved away from Moscow.
Russia’s war in Ukraine further accelerated the divide between the two branches of Orthodox Christianity, especially given that the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, fully endorsed the invasion and framed it as a culture clash between the wider Russian world and Western liberal values.
The new law will effectively formalize what some churches in Ukraine had already begun practicing. A branch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine allowed its churches to celebrate Christmas on December 25 last year. Ukraine’s main Greek Catholic church said in February it was moving to a new calendar to celebrate Christmas on December 25 as well.
Tetyana, an Orthodox Christian from Kyiv, said the date was not important for her, but she was ready to support the move because of its symbolic value.
“If necessary, we will celebrate on December 25. It is no longer about religion, it is more a sign of statehood. Let it be so. I support the president and my country,” she said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he traveled to the Bakhmut area of eastern Ukraine to visit troops and present them with state awards on Saturday, which marks Special Operations Forces Day in Ukraine.
"Today, I am here to congratulate our warriors on their professional day, to honor their strength," Zelensky said in a post on his official Twitter account Saturday, accompanied by several pictures. "I heard a commander's report, talked with the warriors. Very powerful, very effective. Thank you!"
Zelensky said he visited "advanced positions" of the forces, but that he could not go into details about their current mission.
Images and video released by his office showed the president talking to soldiers at a local gas station, drinking coffee and taking pictures with them. Zelensky referred to the meeting as a "traditional coffee talk."
Zelensky went to a command post for special forces tactical groups in the town of Chasiv Yar, which is located about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) west of Bakhmut.
In addition to Chasiv Yar, Zelensky also visited the cities Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, his office said.
"An important day for Ukraine, for the Armed Forces. It is a pleasure to congratulate you. It is clear that the situation is not easy, but you are powerful people. I wish you strength, health and victory," Zelensky said.
Anniversary of prison attack: Zelensky also mentioned the anniversary of a strike on a detention center in Olenivka, where more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners were killed last year.
"Today is the anniversary of Olenivka, one of the most vile and cruel crimes of Russia. The deliberate, pre-planned killing of captured Azov warriors," Zelensky said.
An extensive CNN investigation published in August last year demonstrated that the Russian narrative claiming the camp in Olenivka had been hit by a Ukrainian HIMARS rocket did not stand up to scrutiny. The Office of the UN Human Rights Commissioner has also supported the findings of the investigation.
CNN's Tim Lister and Gianluca Mezzofiore contributed reporting.
