June 30, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

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The United States doesn’t know the whereabouts of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a short-lived rebellion last weekend in Russia and hasn’t been seen in public in a week.

Prigozhin was last spotted leaving the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday, after abruptly calling off his?troops’ march on Moscow.

?“We don’t have perfect visibility here on where Mr. Prigozhin is or where all of his fighters are,” said John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council.

According to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the Wagner chief arrived in Belarus on Tuesday. While there are no videos or photos showing Prigozhin there, satellite imagery of an airbase outside Minsk showed two planes linked to Prigozhin landing there on Tuesday morning.

On Friday, Lukashenko invited?Wagner?mercenaries to train his military. “Unfortunately, they (Wagner?mercenaries) are not here,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Patriot media group, which is associated with Prigozhin, announced it’s shutting down. And Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor has restricted access to media sites belonging to the media group.

Here’s what else you should know:

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on Friday invited?Wagner Group?mercenaries?to Belarus to train his military in a speech dedicated to Belarus’ Independence Day, according to state news agency Belta.?

Lukashenko also said he is not afraid of Wagner members,?as he “has known them for a long time.”?

Lukashenko said the world was facing an unprecedented crisis, but that the West hasn’t felt the need for dialogue to resolve it.?

Lukashenko also accused the European Union and the United States of “arming Poland at an accelerated pace.”?

According to Lukashenko, the West is making Poland into “a proxy training ground” to use against Belarus and Russia.?

Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group, leaves the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday, June 24.

Patriot media group, which is associated with Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, is shutting down operations,?according to the CEO of the Federal News Agency.

According to Zubarev, the total traffic of the Patriot suite of websites has so far amounted to 300 million unique visitors. The group includes the Federal News Agency, People’s News, Economy Today, Nevskiye Novosti and Politics Today.

Russian state media TASS reported Friday that the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor has restricted access to media sites belonging to Patriot.

Prigozhin, the founder of the private military company Wagner, had recently held the position of?deputy head of the Patriot’s supervisory board.

Where is he? Prigozhin was last spotted leaving the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don Saturday, after abruptly calling off his?troops’ march on Moscow.

He released an audio message Monday, explaining his decision to turn his troops back. The Kremlin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed on Saturday that Prigozhin agreed to leave Russia for Belarus.

Lukashenko said he brokered a deal that would see Prigozhin exiled to Belarus without facing criminal charges. According to Lukashenko, the Wagner chief arrived in Belarus Tuesday. While there are no videos or photos showing Prigozhin in?Belarus, satellite imagery of an airbase outside Minsk showed two planes linked to Prigozhin landing there on Tuesday morning.

The United Nations urged the Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul to expedite the clearance of ships under the?Black Sea?grain?deal?that clears vessels to export Ukrainian grain.

No ships have been authorized to travel to Black Sea ports since June 26, according to a UN statement. Under the terms of the deal, Russian and Ukrainian inspectors must clear ships for passage. Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of impeding the traffic.

Only 13 ships remain in the Initiative, Haq said, and they are “either loading in the Ukrainian ports or on the move to or from Istanbul.”???

“Every day counts,” he said. “Without new ships entering the Black Sea Initiative, a million or more tonnes of food will remain stuck between now and the run-up to?17?July,” when the current deal expires.???

“The parties must ensure that additional vessels are allowed to sail the maritime humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea, which serves as a global lifeline for food security,” Haq went on to say, adding that the beginning of the harvest season “underscores the urgency.”??

Haq said that in June, 2 million tonnes of foodstuffs were exported, well below port capacity and industry demands.?

Some background: The Black Sea grain deal was?first reached?in July 2022.

Russia had been blockading vital grain exports from key Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which meant that millions of tons of Ukrainian grain were not being exported to the many countries that rely on it.

The impact of the war on global food markets was immediate and extremely painful, especially because Ukraine is a major supplier of grain to the World Food Programme. According to the European Commission, Ukraine accounts for 10% of the world wheat market, 15% of the corn market, and 13% of the barley market. It is also a key global player in the market of sunflower oil.

The Food and Agriculture Organization, a UN body, warned at the time that as many as 47 million people could be pushed into “acute food insecurity” because of the war. Western officials accused Russia of using food as a weapon.

The deal – brokered by the United Nations and Turkey with Russia and Ukraine – created procedures to ensure the safe export of grain from Ukrainian ports.

Missile strikes against Ukrainian soldiers who had crossed the Dnipro River have caused high casualties, according to the Russian-appointed governor of the occupied Kherson region.

An Iskander missile struck near the Antonivskyi bridge, killing at least 30 fighters and maiming a dozen others, Vladimir Saldo claimed Friday on Telegram.

“The rest of them are hiding in summer houses on both sides of the bridge,” Saldo said, adding that special forces would begin a final sweep of the area.

CNN cannot verify the governor’s claims of Ukrainian casualties, but geolocated video of the area south of the bridge shows fresh damage, with an entire stretch of the elevated roadway demolished.

There has been heavy fighting in the area for nearly a week as Ukrainian troops have established a bridgehead on the east bank of the Dnipro.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at a news conference in Kyiv on June 28.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered Ukraine’s military?to bolster?the country’s?northern defenses.

After a meeting with military commanders, Zelensky said that?“the situation in the north, in particular, on the territory of Belarus, was considered separately. … By the decision of the (General) Staff, Commander-in-Chief (Valerii) Zaluzhny and General (Serhiy) Naiev were instructed to strengthen the northern direction – to guarantee peace.”?

There has been an uptick in cross-border shelling and air strikes by Russian forces into the northern Sumy and Chernihiv regions in recent weeks. But Ukrainian officials have played down any threat of a renewed assault from Belarus.?

Zelensky said that Ukrainian units?“have made progress in all directions” of the front lines on Friday, adding that?Ukraine’s “work with partners to receive rounds for Ukrainian soldiers is already at its best capacity.”??

The Antonivskyi Bridge over the flooded Dnipro River is pictured June 8.

Russian and Ukrainian troops are exchanging heavy fire around the badly damaged Antonivskyi Bridge in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region.

Moscow-appointed authorities deny reports that Ukraine has staked out strategically significant territory on the Russian-controlled east bank of the Dnipro River.

But a Russian military blogger — one in a network of pro-war Russian journalists and propagandists — claimed Friday that Moscow’s troops tried and failed to clear the east bank of Ukrainian soldiers.

“There are dead and wounded on our side,” the Russian blogger wrote. “At present time the enemy continues to hold a small bridgehead on our (east) bank.”

Two bloggers said the Ukrainian fighters are hiding under the Antonivskyi Bridge, and the Russian military has been firing at them with missiles and rockets.

Another Russian military blogger said the Ukrainian group is benefiting from strong covering fire, launched from howitzers and mortars on the western bank.

Why it matters: Analysts believe the Ukrainian action in Kherson is designed to keep Russian troops in the area and prevent their re-deployment to the front in Zaporizhzhia, a vitally important southern region.

Reclaiming Zaporizhzhia is the key to Kyiv’s military cutting off occupied southern Ukraine from the Russia-annexed Crimean peninsula, which it has controlled since 2014. That would effectively sever the land route between territory newly claimed in Russia’s invasion and territory it claimed nearly a decade ago.

Ukrainian servicemen ride on a tank in Donetsk region on June 28.

The Ukrainian military says its forces are advancing on both the southern front and in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, but it did not make any specific claims to newly captured territory.

On the southern front: Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi says Kyiv’s army “is systematically driving out the enemy and burning out its positions” in southern Ukraine.

Most accounts from the Ukrainian side over the last week have spoken of very incremental advances in the south, with Ukrainian forces encountering deeply layered Russian defenses supported by artillery and attack helicopters.

Tarnavskyi claimed the fighting has left hundreds of Russian fighters dead or wounded over the last day, but CNN cannot independently verify claims about casualties from either side of the conflict.

The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said late Friday that counteroffensive operations continued in the direction of Melitopol and Berdiansk, two cities about 120 kilometers (75 miles) apart in southeastern Ukraine that have seen heavy fighting.

The General Staff claimed “partial success” in two areas.?It said Ukrainian brigades “are consolidating their positions on established front lines,” and that the enemy has suffered heavy losses.

Again, CNN cannot independently verify battlefield developments.

On the eastern front:?Ukrainian units have also been attacking Russian flanks to the north and south of Bakhmut.

A Ukrainian commander in the region, Maksym Zhorin, claimed without evidence that there is “chaos” in the management of some Russian units near Bakhmut.?

“On the flanks of Bakhmut, our troops are putting pressure on the enemy,” the General Staff said.

The Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor has restricted access to media sites belonging to the Patriot media group, which is part of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s business empire.

Russian state news agency TASS reported that “access to the website of the Patriot media group, as well as to the websites of its members Federal News Agency, People’s News, Economics Today and Politics Today, is limited on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

Roskomnadzor had limited access to the sites mediapatriot.ru, riafan.ru, rueconomics.ru, nation-news.ru, polit.info, it said.

“The grounds for blocking are not specified,” TASS said, adding that the networks of the Patriot media group and its Federal News Agency (RIA FAN) had also been blocked on the social media site VKontakte.?

Roskomnadzor previously told TASS that “a number of resources are being limited in order to prevent the spread of calls for participation in a military mutiny.”

Prigozhin is on the board of trustees of the media group, which was established in October 2019.

The exact whereabouts of Prigozhin remain unknown one week after his short-lived mutiny, though Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed he is in Belarus.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, center, speaks at a news conference alongside Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and European Council President Charles Michel at an EU summit in Brussels on June 30.

European Union leaders have tasked the European Commission to come forward with a proposal that would focus on profits from immobilized assets of the Russian Central Bank to assist with costs of rebuilding Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels following the two-day summit of European leaders, von der Leyen said, “We see the massive destruction that Russia is responsible for in Ukraine, and the perpetrator has to be held accountable.”

The commission will take “a very prudent approach to work with the windfall profits in close cooperation with our international partners,” von der Leyen added.

Speaking at the same press conference, European Council President Charles Michel said, “We continue to believe that we should maintain our efforts with our partners to mobilize assets in favor of Ukraine and Ukraine’s future.”

Last month, European Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand confirmed that “over €200 billion ($218 billion) of immobilized assets of the Russian Central Bank” had been seized by EU countries.

The World Bank estimates Ukraine will need at least $411 billion to repair the damage caused by the war.

More context: After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year, EU and Group of Seven countries imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, freezing nearly half of its foreign reserves — some 300 billion euros ($327 billion) — among other measures.

Around two-thirds of that, or 200 billion euros ($218 billion), sits in the EU, mostly in accounts at Belgium-based Euroclear, one of the world’s largest financial clearing houses.

CNN’s Hanna Zaidy contributed reporting to this post.

The Biden administration acknowledged Friday that the early stages of Ukraine’s counteroffensive have fallen short of expectations but reiterated the United States will continue to provide support in the ways of training, equipment and advice.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said Friday that the slower pace is “part of the nature of war.”?

“What I had said was this is going to take six, eight, 10 weeks. It’s going to be very difficult. It’s going to be very long, and it’s going to be very, very bloody. And no one should have any illusions about any of that,” Milley said at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on Friday. ?

“This is literally a fight for their life,” he said. “So yes, sure, it goes a little slow, but that is part of the nature of war.”

Some background: Last week, CNN reported that officials believed the counteroffensive is “not meeting expectations on any front,”?while Russian lines of defense have been proving well-fortified, making it difficult for Ukrainian forces to breach them. In addition, Russian forces have had success bogging down Ukrainian armor with missile attacks and mines and have been deploying air power more effectively. Ukrainian forces are proving “vulnerable” to minefields and Russian forces “competent” in their defense, one Western official said.?

On the counteroffensive, Kirby acknowledged Ukrainian forces “have made some progress—and they have themselves spoken to the fact that it’s not as much as they would have liked, but again, we’re focused on making sure that they have what they need and will continue to do that.”?

He declined to offer a timeline on how much longer the conflict could be expected to last.

Possible cluster munitions: Milley also said that the US has been “thinking about” providing cluster munitions to Ukraine “for a long time” but that he did not know that a decision has been made yet.??

CNN reported Thursday that the Biden administration is strongly considering approving the transfer of the controversial warheads to Kyiv with a final decision expected soon from the White House.?

CNN’s Haley Britzky contributed reporting to this post.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group, leaves the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday, June 24.

The United States government does not currently have great insight into the current whereabouts of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin or the fighters that took part in the rebellion last weekend, John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said Friday.

The United States officially declared Wagner a transnational criminal organization in January and this week the Treasury issued sanctions against front companies helping the group fund its efforts with illegal gold.

Members of Wagner group stand on the balcony of a building in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on June 24.

Fighters who decide to stay in the?private paramilitary group Wagner will not be sent to the conflict in Ukraine, Russian daily Vedomosti reported Friday, citing Andrei Kartapolov, the head of the State Duma Defense Committee.

The head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had refused to sign a contract with the defense ministry, a dispute that culminated in his brief rebellion last weekend.

However, Wagner fighters can sign up for the conflict in Ukraine after they have attended a training camp, Kartapolov said.?

“They are sent to training camps for several weeks, where they undergo training,” Kartapolov told Vedomosti.?“And then they have a choice – either sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, or go home and sign a contract with another [security] structure,” he said.?

The main power structure will be the National Guard, according to Vedomosti.

More on Wagner: Earlier this week, the US Defense Department said that members of the paramilitary organization were still inside Ukraine after the weekend mutiny.

A prosecutor in Kazakhstan has warned that efforts to recruit Kazakhs to join the Russian military are unconstitutional and illegal.

The Prosecutor’s Office of the Kostanay region said in a statement Thursday that “attempts to recruit [the] local population to the territory of the Russian Federation to participate in the armed conflict in?Ukraine?have been recorded in our region. Such actions are prohibited by the Constitution of Kazakhstan as well as universally recognised international legal documents to which our country is a party.”

The statement continued: “In order to ensure public safety, protect the rights and freedoms of citizens, and prevent any destabilisation of the social and political situation, we urge you not to respond to such provocative statements and appeals in the media and social networks.”

Some key context: Such official statements are unusual in Kazakhstan, which has tried to retain historically close relations with Russia without getting involved in the conflict. Last year, thousands of Russian men trying to avoid military mobilization crossed into Kazakhstan.?

The prosecutor said that social media platforms included “calls for the participation of citizens of Kazakhstan in the conflict, deliberately provocative statements and deliberately false information with indications of inciting ethnic hatred, insulting the national honor and dignity of citizens of both sides.”

The statement said that “the intentional unlawful participation of a Kazakh citizen in military actions in a foreign country, as well as intentional actions aimed at inciting ethnic hatred, public calls for violations of the integrity of Kazakhstan, the inviolability and inalienability of its territory, using the media or telecommunications networks are criminal offences.”

Poland has arrested a Russian professional athlete suspected of spying for Russia.??

In a statement Friday, the Polish Internal Security Agency said it initially detained the athlete on June 11 in connection with an investigation into an alleged Russian spy ring.

The agency said that?14 other suspects had already been arrested as part of the investigation into the alleged spy ring.

On June 13, the District Court in the city of Lublin issued a decision allowing the suspect to be held in pretrial detention for a period of three months.??

According to the security agency statement, evidence gathered indicates that the suspect is “a professional sportsman” belonging to a first league club.?

The athlete has been in Poland since October 2021 with evidence showing that he was “systemically rewarded” for providing information.??

The Internal Security Agency stressed that that it is continuing to work intensively on the “dynamic” case.

Search and rescue efforts continue after a Russian missile attack hit a restaurant in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on June 27.

Colombia’s ambassador in Russia, Héctor Arenas Neira, was invited to a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday to discuss the circumstances of Tuesday’s attack in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, where three Colombian citizens were injured, according to a statement released by the Russian ministry.

“We drew the Ambassador’s attention to the urgent need to recommend that Colombian citizens refrain from visiting territories located in the war zone,” it added.?

Colombian member of parliament?and former?High Commissioner for Peace Sergio Jaramillo, writer Hector Abad and journalist Catalina Gomez were injured during the missile attack.?The three Colombians were having dinner along with Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina at a pizzeria on Tuesday evening. Amelina is in critical condition as a result of a skull injury, according to a statement issued by Jaramillo and Abad.

CNN has reached out to Colombia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and Colombia’s embassy in Moscow for comment.?

President Gustavo Petro has condemned the strike.?

“Russia has attacked three defenseless Colombian civilians. It has violated the protocols of war,” he said.?

More about the attack: The strike left 12 dead, the deadliest attack against civilians in months. The area around Ria Lounge, the restaurant that was struck, is a particularly popular spot with a busy post office, a jewelry store, a cafe and a pharmacy all within a stone’s throw from Ria. One of Kramatorsk’s biggest supermarkets is just down the road.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk?region military administration, said Russia used Iskanders – high-precision, short-range ballistic missiles.

The Ukrainian Security Service has alleged that the attack was premeditated, saying that it had detained a man who allegedly scouted the restaurant and sent a video to the Russian Armed Forces prior to the strike.

Anders Ahnlid, head of the EU working group on Russian frozen assets and?Director-General of the National Board of Trade Sweden, on March 24, Stockholm, Sweden.

Russian assets?frozen?in European accounts could generate billions of dollars a year for?rebuilding Ukraine. But can that money be used without breaching international law or damaging the euro’s international standing?

European Union leaders grappled with that question in Brussels Thursday.

The World Bank estimates Ukraine will need at least $411 billion to repair the damage caused by the war. And the EU?and its allies are determined to make Russia foot part of the bill.

One idea put forward in?the EU is to draw off the interest on income generated by Russian assets while leaving the assets themselves untouched.

This approach would probably deliver about 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) a year, according to Anders Ahnlid, the director general of the Swedish National Board of Trade and head of the EU working group looking into frozen Russian assets.

But some EU member states, and the European Central Bank, have concerns that it could shake confidence in the euro as the world’s second biggest reserve currency. The EU has been at pains to contrast the illegality of Russia’s invasion with its own strict adherence to the rule of law.

“We have to respect the principles of international law,” said a senior EU diplomat, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss closed-door meetings. “It’s a matter of reputation, of financial stability and trust.”

The ECB declined to comment.

Read more about how it would work here.

The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence unit has said that he understands that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has been “charged with a task to assassinate” Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.?

Meanwhile, at least three people have been killed and four wounded after Russia shelled Ukraine’s Kherson region.

Here are the latest developments:

Here’s the latest map of control:

Ukraine has claimed it hit the Russian military “headquarters” and storage facility in the occupied port city of Berdiansk in the Zaporizhzhia region on Friday.?

Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region,?earlier said that air defenses had downed the missiles?Ukraine fired at Berdiansk.

CNN is unable to verify either claim.?

A Russian service member stands guard at a checkpoint near the?Zaporizhzhia?Nuclear?Power?Plant?in Russian-controlled Ukraine, on June 15.

Russians stationed at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in southern Ukraine are “gradually leaving,” the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate said Friday.

It did not specify whether it was referring to the Kremlin’s troops there, or just to employees of the state-run nuclear company Rosatom.?

Three employees of Russia’s state-run nuclear company Rosatom, “were among the first to leave the plant,” it claimed, adding that, Ukrainian employees who had signed a contract with Rosatom were also advised to leave for Russian-occupied Crimea.

Bulk carrier ARGO I is docked at the grain terminal of the port of Odessa, Ukraine, on April 10.

The attitude of Western countries toward the Black Sea grain deal is “outrageous,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a Friday briefing with reporters.?

Lavrov repeated Moscow’s complaints about the alleged failure of the West to uphold part of what he described as a “package” deal struck last July: a pact between the UN and Russia – agreed at the same time as the deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain – to?ease shipments of grain from Russia.?

Russia has threatened not to agree another extension to the deal, which expires on July 18.?

William Moseley, a member of UN High Level Panel of Experts for Food Security, told CNN that it is his “sincere hope that the deal will be renewed.”?

“A failure to extend the Black Sea grain deal would be disruptive… for grain importing countries in the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa in particular,” Moseley said.

“Ukraine has also been an important supplier of wheat to the World Food Programme which provides emergency food assistance around the world. More broadly, disruptions will result in price increases that fall hardest on the poorest of the poor.”

Lavrov also said at the news conference that there’s “no need to worry” about Russia following the short-lived Wagner rebellion.

Asked about last weekend’s events, Lavrov said: “You know, we are not obliged to explain anything to anyone, to give any assurances…The president spoke on this topic, all the political forces of the country spoke on this topic. If someone in the West has any doubts, then that’s your problem.

Founder of Wagner private mercenary group Yevgeny?Prigozhin?speaks inside the headquarters of the Russian southern army military command center in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, in this still image taken from a video released on June 24.

The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence unit has said that he understands the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has been “charged with a task to assassinate” Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.?

In an interview with journalist Howard Altman for online magazine ‘The War Zone,’ Kyrylo Budanov said: “We are aware that the FSB was charged with a task to assassinate him. Will they be successful in doing that? We’ll see with time.”

Budanov, who heads the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR), described the outcome of the alleged plot by the FSB – Russia’s domestic intelligence service – as “a big open question.”

Budanov spoke to the outlet via a translator via a video link from Kyiv.?

The Kremlin has remained silent on the topic, embarking instead on an aggressive campaign to reassert the authority of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Three people have been killed and four wounded after Russia shelled the Ukrainian region of Kherson over the past 24 hours, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said in a post on Telegram.?

Prokudin said: ”The enemy made 72 attacks over the last day, launching 434 shells from mortars, artillery, tanks, ‘Grads’ and UAVs.

A second post from Prokudin on Friday said that one more resident of Kherson city had been injured in morning shelling: a 72-year-old woman who was hospitalized with chest and leg wounds.

A 70-year-old man was also wounded in an artillery strike on the village of Mykhailivka.

Greta?Thunberg attends a press conference after a meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 29.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg visited Kyiv on Thursday to draw attention to the environmental impact of war in a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and environment officials.?

Her visit comes after the collapse of Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam on June 6, which Thunberg previously slammed as “ecocide” resulting from Russia’s invasion. Both Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for attacking the dam.?

No one can be “unbothered” by the “horrific developments taking place now in Ukraine and the crimes committed by Russia,” she said.?

Some background:?The collapse of the?Nova Kakhovka dam?is one of the?biggest industrial and ecological disasters?in Europe for decades. The catastrophe destroyed entire villages, flooded farmland, deprived tens of thousands of people of power and clean water, and caused massive environmental damage.

It’s still impossible to say whether the dam collapsed because it was deliberately targeted or if the breach could have been caused by structural failure. The dam and hydroelectric power plant are under Russian control and therefore inaccessible to independent investigators, leaving experts around the world trying to piece together what happened based on limited visual evidence.

Several Western officials have blamed Russia for the disaster, either directly accusing Moscow of targeting the dam or saying that Russia is responsible simply because it is the aggressor in the war on Ukraine.

Multiple explosions hit the occupied port city of Berdiansk in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region on Friday, according to reports from Ukrainian and Russia-backed officials.?

Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official in Zaporizhzhia, claimed the blasts were caused by Russian air defenses downing missiles fired by Ukraine.?

“The explosions heard were the air defense which successfully repelled the attack on the outskirts of the city,” he said.?

New information is gradually coming to light, but many questions remain unanswered about how exactly Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s?shocking 36-hour rebellion?played out — and what will happen next for the key players involved.

Meanwhile, Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, with deadly shelling on cities along the front lines and more clashes in hot spots in the south and east.

Catch up on the latest headlines here:

The Biden administration is strongly considering approving the transfer of controversial cluster munition warheads to Ukraine, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN, as the Ukrainians struggle to make major gains in their?weeks-old counteroffensive.???

Officials told CNN that a final decision is expected soon from the White House, and that if approved, the weapons could be included in a new military aid package to Ukraine as soon as next month.?

Ukrainian officials have been pushing the US to provide the munitions since last year, arguing that they would provide more ammunition for Western-provided artillery and rocket systems, and help narrow Russia’s numerical superiority in artillery.?

But the US had been reluctant to provide them because of the risk they could pose to civilians, and because some key US allies, including the UK, France, and Germany, are signatories to a ban on cluster munitions — weapons that scatter “bomblets” across large areas that can fail to explode on impact and can pose a long-term risk to anyone who encounters them, similar to landmines.?

The Ukrainian counteroffensive launched earlier this month, however, has not made as much progress as US officials hoped it would by this point, with Russian lines of defense?proving more well-fortified than anticipated.?

And it is not clear whether the heavy amount of artillery ammunition the Ukrainians have been expending day-to-day is sustainable if the counteroffensive drags on, officials and military analysts said.?

Cluster munitions, which the US has stockpiled in large numbers since phasing them out in 2016, could help fill that gap, officials said.?

Administration officials also believe they have managed to alleviate some allies’ concerns about the US transferring the munitions, officials said.

The US official noted that the weapon would not be a new capability for Ukraine. Both the Ukrainians and the Russians have used cluster bombs since Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, and more recently, Ukrainian forces have begun using Turkish-provided cluster munitions on the battlefield.?

Documents shared exclusively with CNN suggest that?Russian Gen. Sergey Surovikin?was a secret VIP member of the Wagner private military company.?

The documents, obtained by the Russian investigative Dossier Center, showed that Surovikin had a personal registration number with Wagner. Surovikin is listed along with at least 30 other senior Russian military and intelligence officials, who the Dossier Center said are also VIP Wagner members.?

Surovikin has not been seen in public since last Saturday, when he released a video pleading for?Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin?to stop his insurrection.?His whereabouts have since?remained unknown.

Surovikin is a decorated commander of the Russian Air Force and became nicknamed?“General Armageddon”?for his ruthless tactics bombing cities in Syria.

Wagner has not answered CNN’s request for a response. It is unclear what Wagner’s VIP membership entails, including whether there is a financial benefit.?

Surovikin was known to have?links?with the mercenary group,?but the documents raise questions?about the closeness of senior members of the Russian military and Wagner.?

During?Prigozhin’s short-lived rebellion, Wagner fighters were able to take over the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, facing virtually no resistance from the Russian army.??

Serhii?Naiev speaks to members of the mobile air defence groups in Hostomel, Kyiv region, Ukraine on April 1.

The Ukrainian military has advised residents of the northern Sumy region’s border area to leave their homes in light of increased Russian shelling.

Serhiy Naiev, commander of?the Joint Forces of?the Armed Forces of?Ukraine, encouraged residents to evacuate, saying, “The Sumy direction remains the most dangerous in the Northern operational zone.”

Earlier Thursday, the armed forces published images of damage to property in the border area of ??Sumy, saying there is constant shelling from Russian forces.

The Sumy regional military administration?said?there was no threat of Russian invasion. “We have not observed any attack groups along our border. No enemy offensive actions have been observed,” it said.

However, it added, “Russia’s shelling of our border has not stopped for a single day. The intensity and number of attacks is only increasing. The shelling is carried out daily, 24 hours a day, using various types of weapons — from machine guns and mortars to air strikes.”

Sumy lies 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the border with Russia and was?one of the first cities?attacked as part of the Russian invasion in February 2022.?

One is known as?”General Armageddon,”?the other as?“Putin’s chef.”?Both have a checkered past and a reputation for brutality. One launched the insurrection, the other reportedly knew about it in advance. And right now, both are nowhere to be found.

The commander of the Russian air force Sergey Surovikin and the Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin have not been seen in public in days as questions swirl about the role Surovikin may have played in Prigozhin’s short-lived mutiny.

The Kremlin has remained silent on the topic, embarking instead on an aggressive campaign to reassert the authority of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

What is happening? On Wednesday, the Russian-language version of the independent Moscow Times cited two anonymous defense sources as saying that Surovikin had been arrested in relation to the failed mutiny. CNN has been unable to independently verify that claim.

A well-known Russian journalist Alexey Venediktov — former editor of the now-shuttered Echo of Moscow radio station — also claimed Wednesday Surovikin had not been in contact with his family for three days.

But other Russian commentators suggested the general was not in custody. A former Russian member of Parliament Sergey Markov said on Telegram that Surovikin had attended a meeting in Rostov on Thursday, but did not say how he knew this.

Adding further to the speculation, Russian Telegram channel Baza has posted what it says is a brief interview with Surovikin’s daughter, in which she claimed to be in contact with her father and insists that he has not been detained. CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the recording.

Read more here.

A social network created by one of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s companies said it will cease operations on Friday.

“The YaRus social network will suspend operations on June 30,” the network said on Telegram.

Prigozhin, who called off his private military fighters’ march toward Moscow on Saturday, has a wide variety of media interests.?

YaRus has been a large aggregator of news and social content in Russia and boasted some 70,000 pieces of content per day.

The company operated a popular mobile app and said it had more than 11 million users, though few were registered.

It’s unclear what will happen to Prigozhin’s other media interests, which include the RIA/FAN news agency.?

Vladimir Putin speaks during a forum in Moscow, Russia on June 29.

It remains to be seen whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has complete control of his troops at this time, former US Vice President Mike Pence said during a visit to Ukraine on Thursday.

Responding to a question from CNN’s Erin Burnett, Pence called it an “open question” whether the Russian president has full command of his military.

Pence said the Wagner private military group — which led a stunning, if brief, armed rebellion against the Kremlin leadership last weekend — “are understood to be some of the most elite forces in Russia.”

“Now they’ve been dispersed,” Pence continued, “they’re being invited back into the military.”

More context: Prigozhin was last spotted leaving the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don Saturday, after abruptly calling off his?troops’ march on Moscow.

He released an audio message Monday, explaining his decision to turn his troops back. The Kremlin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed on Saturday that Prigozhin agreed to leave Russia for Belarus.

Lukashenko said he brokered a deal that would see Prigozhin exiled in Belarus without facing criminal charges. According to Lukashenko, the Wagner chief arrived in Belarus Tuesday. While there are no videos or photos showing Prigozhin in?Belarus, satellite imagery of an airbase outside Minsk showed two planes linked to Prigozhin landed there on Tuesday morning.

The full interview with Pence will be broadcast on Out Front with Erin Burnett at 7 p.m. ET

CNN’s Ivana Kottasová,?Jo Shelley,?Anna Chernova?and?Sophie Tanno contributed to this report.

NATO members must discuss a pathway to membership for Ukraine at their upcoming summit, if the US-led alliance wants to maintain its credibility, experts say.

“No one expects for Ukraine to be invited to join NATO at Vilnius,” says Christopher Skaluba, director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, a non-partisan think tank.

But the success of the summit will depend on whether allies find a way to make progress on providing Ukraine with conditions it needs to meet and a timeline for accession, he said.

“It has to be something measurable. Some sort of criteria, timeline, things that Ukraine needs to accomplish,” he said.

Many allies support this step in order to make progress on the 2008 Bucharest declaration, where NATO first welcomed Ukraine’s wish to accede to the alliance, but the lag appears to be in Washington, according to John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine.

While Herbst said he hopes NATO will release a joint statement addressing Ukraine’s eventual succession, he is not betting on it.

Skaluba says he worries a lack of consensus on this issue “will begin to signal concern about whether that solidarity we saw behind Ukraine for the last year and a half is in fact a question.”