UK defence ministry: Wagner mercenaries likely serving in Russian national guard
Large elements of the Wagner mercenary group have likely been assimilated into the command structure of Russian national guard (Rosgvardiya), the UK defence ministry said in its daily intelligence briefing.
The Wagner arm in the Rosgvardiya is likely being led by Pavel Prigozhin, son of the late Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash shortly after Wagner fighters captured the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and marched on Moscow – acts that Vladimir Putin declared “treason”.
The UK has proscribed the Wagner group as a terrorist organisation.
Other groups of Wagner fighters have likely joined another Russian private military company, Redut, the UK defence ministry said, which has 7,000 personnel in total.
While the UK defence ministry believes that the Russian state is now exercising more control over Wagner group activities and its former personnel following the July 2023 mutiny, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said that Wagner medics have joined Chechen Akhmat special forces. That’s in addition to the 170 fighers that have already joined Akhmat, Kadyrov said in October.
Key events
Report: Russian train derailment caused by explosive device
Reuters is reporting that Russian investigators have determined that the freight train that was derailed yesterday in Russia’s Ryazan oblast was caused by a homemade bomb on the railway line.
Authorities have opened a terrorism investigation into the derailment.
“According to the investigation, at 07:12 on November 11, 2023, an improvised explosive device exploded,” the investigative committee said. “As a result, 19 wagons of the freight train were derailed.”
Kyiv has not yet commented on the incident, but Russian officials have previously blamed pro-Ukrainian saboteurs for several attacks on the country’s railway system since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
💥Explosion near Ryazan: Russian services say it was an assassination attempt
The Russian Investigative Committee said an explosion was near Rybnoye station this morning. A freight train derailed – 19 cars were damaged pic.twitter.com/Zep3eNfHFM
— Belsat in English (@Belsat_Eng) November 11, 2023
Several buildings and electicity lines in Russia’s Belgorod oblast were damaged in Ukrainian attacks yesterday, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.
Ukrainian forces launcehd three shells at the city of Valuyki, damaging three private households, five cars and a power line, as well as creating a crater between railroad tracks, Gladkov said. Power has since been restored to the area.
Ukrainian forces also launched an artillery shell at the village of Krasny Khutor, and Russian air defence shot down an unmanned aerial drone over the village of Dubovoe. A kamikaze drone struck the village of Solntsevka with electronic warfare, but there were no casualties or destruction reported.
There were also no casualties or damages following Ukrainian mortar fire on Starry village and the village of Mokraya Orlovka. The village of Repyakhovka also came under artillery fire, but no one was hurt and there were no damages.
Ukrainian forces launched five mortar shells at the village of Murom, three tank shells at the village of Sereda, four mortar and six artillery shells at the village of Terezovka, as well as 20 grenade launcher rounds. There were no casualties or destruction.
Two kamikaze drones struck the village of Belyanka was attacked with the help of two kamikaze drones and the outskirts of a farm in Lozovaya Rudka. While the attack damaged an excavator, there were no casualties.
Here are some of the latest images coming in from Ukraine via news agency wires:
Russian forces launched two mortar attacks overnight on the border areas and settlements of the Sumy oblast, the Sumy regional military administration said on Telegram.
The mortar attacks resulted in four explosions in Myropilsk and three explosions in Velikopysarivsk.
UK defence ministry: Wagner mercenaries likely serving in Russian national guard
Large elements of the Wagner mercenary group have likely been assimilated into the command structure of Russian national guard (Rosgvardiya), the UK defence ministry said in its daily intelligence briefing.
The Wagner arm in the Rosgvardiya is likely being led by Pavel Prigozhin, son of the late Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash shortly after Wagner fighters captured the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and marched on Moscow – acts that Vladimir Putin declared “treason”.
The UK has proscribed the Wagner group as a terrorist organisation.
Other groups of Wagner fighters have likely joined another Russian private military company, Redut, the UK defence ministry said, which has 7,000 personnel in total.
While the UK defence ministry believes that the Russian state is now exercising more control over Wagner group activities and its former personnel following the July 2023 mutiny, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said that Wagner medics have joined Chechen Akhmat special forces. That’s in addition to the 170 fighers that have already joined Akhmat, Kadyrov said in October.
Russian forces launched 87 strikes on 18 communities in the Zaporizhzhia oblast over the past day, Yuriy Malashko, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said on Telegram.
Temyrivka and Novodarivka were hit with multiple launch rocket systems, while Zaliznychne, Charivne, Chervone and other communities sustained nine unmanned aerial drone attacks.
There were no casualties, but private homes and commercial buildings sustained damages.
Russian forces launched one missiles, 63 airstrikes, 64 multiple launch rocket system attacks yesterday, and engaged Ukrainian troops in 80 combat engagements, the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in its morning briefing.
Overnight, Russian forces launched another missile and air strike on Ukraine, using two Kh-59 guided missiles and one Iskander-M ballistic missile. Ukrainian air defence were able to destroy one guided missile, but officials are still gathering information on casualties and damages.
Air strikes hit Chuikivka in the Sumy oblast; Kyslivka, Stepova Novoselivka, Kopanky, Petropavlivka in the Kharkiv oblast; the Serebryansky forest and Bilohorivka in the Luhansk oblast, Sivers’k, Spirne, Terny, Novobakhmutivka, Klishchiivka, Andriivka, Novokalynove, Ocheretyne, Avdiivka, Orlivka, Lastochkine, Heorhiivka, Mar’inka, Novomykhailivka, Katerynivka, Urozhaine, Staromaiorske and Shakhtarsk in the Donetsk oblast; Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia oblast and Tyahinka in the Kherson oblast.
More than 120 settlements in Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Mykolayiv oblasts came under artillery fire.
Also yesterday, the Ukrainian Air Force launched 10 air strikes, hitting two Russian artillery systems, eight concentrations of Russian troops, weapons, and military equipment, and two Russian air defence systems.
Senior Ukrainian official involved in Nord Stream pipeline sabotage – reports
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Former Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen put forward a proposal for Ukraine to join the military alliance – but without the territories occupied by Russia.
Rasmussen, who led Nato between 2009 and 2014, insisted that this partial membership plan would not represent a freezing of the conflict, but would instead mark a determination to warn Russia that it cannot prevent Ukraine joining the western defensive alliance.
Meanwhile, a 64-year-old man was killed and his wife hospitalised this morning following the Russian shelling of Dnipro district of the city of Kherson, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.
In other key developments:
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A senior Ukrainian military official played a key role in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last year, according to a joint investigation by the Washington Post and Der Spiegel published Saturday. Roman Chervinsky, a colonel in Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, people familiar with his role told the US and German newspapers.
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German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition has agreed to double German military aid for Ukraine next year to 8 billion euros ($8.54 billion), Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Lawmakers from Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Free Democrats and the Green party agreed on the increase in negotiations over the proposed 2024 federal budget this week, Bloomberg said.
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Latvia’s president said Russia is planning for a long war in Ukraine and urged wavering allies to continue supplying military support to Kyiv or risk Moscow threatening other countries. In an interview with Associated Press, Edgars Rinkēvičs said it was “important to actually fight for international peace, and peace in Europe, because if we stop Russia in Ukraine, then Russia is not going to be able to challenge other countries.”
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Russia on Saturday launched a missile attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the surrounding region for the first time in more than seven weeks, Ukrainian officials said. Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said a Russian ballistic missile was launched toward the capital at about 8 am local time. “The missile failed to reach Kyiv, air defenders shot it down as it was approaching the capital,” he said, adding that there were no casualties or major damage.
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Ukrainian border guards said they had retaken a village in the country’s northeast adjacent to the Russian border. Online video from Kharkiv region showed border guards raising the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag in Topoli village alongside the Russian border, without further explanation.
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Russian authorities said Saturday they had launched a “terrorism” probe after the derailment of a goods train southwest of Moscow. An “improvised explosive device” caused the derailment of 19 of the train’s wagons in the Riazan region on Saturday, the state investigation committee said in a social media announcement. Russian authorities have yet to blame Ukraine for Saturday’s incident but several sabotage attempts have been made on Russian railways since the country started its offensive against Ukraine in February 2022 and Moscow has repeatedly accused Kyiv of responsibility.
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In the east, military spokesperson Oleskandr Shtupun said Ukrainian troops had repelled 35 Russian assaults in and near Avdiivka, which has been under intense fire since mid-October. Shtupun told national television that 70% of air strikes in the east and south targeted Avdiivka. Officials in Avdiivka say they anticipate a new Russian push on the city once the ground dries up from days of heavy rain.
