For today, links to reports from Reuters, the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Tass; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. Then, links to two articles featuring the now-devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Finally, commentary published yesterday by Common Dreams and relayed today by Consortium News. — MCM
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Mercenary Prigozhin warns Russia could face revolution unless elite gets serious about war, by Guy Faulconbridge | Reuters MOSCOW — Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group, warned that Russia could face a revolution similar to those of 1917 and lose the conflict in Ukraine unless the elite got serious about fighting the war. He said he did not believe a so-called optimistic view that the West would get tired of war and China would broker a peace deal. Instead, he said, Ukraine was preparing . . . READ MORE . . .
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Russia’s Wagner boss says more than 20,000 of his troops died in Bakhmut battle, by Susie Blann | AP KYIV — The head of the Russian private army Wagner says his force lost more than 20,000 fighters in the drawn-out battle for Bakhmut, with about 20% of the 50,000 Russian convicts he recruited to fight in the 15-month war dying in the eastern Ukrainian city. The figure was in stark contrast . . . READ MORE . . .
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China’s Xi offers Russia ‘firm support’ in ‘core interests.’ From AFP. Chinese President Xi Jinping today offered Beijing’s support on Moscow’s “core interests” at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. China and Russia have in recent years ramped up economic and diplomatic cooperation, growing even closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine despite Beijing’s insistence that it is neutral . . . . READ MORE . . .
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Kremlin spokesman sees no prerequisites for Ukrainian peace process. From Tass. MOSCOW — It would be too early to speak about a peaceful solution of the Ukrainian conflict because no prerequisites for this scenario are currently in place, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told TASS in an interview when asked which one of various reconciliation plans, put forward by other countries, would be preferable for Russia. “Any negotiations with Russia are prohibited [in Ukraine].” READ MORE . . .
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Will Bakhmut prove to be Russia’s Pyrrhic victory? by James Brooke | The Berkshire Eagle As Russia braces for Ukraine’s expected summer counteroffensive, its military has been weakened by months of severe losses in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Realizing that Bakhmut was key to decimating Russia’s military, Ukrainian leaders adopted the slogan last winter: “Hold Bakhmut.” A provincial city of negligible strategic value . . . READ MORE . . .
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Bakhmut memories, by Yasha Levine | Substack News is that after about a year Russia has finally taken Bakhmut — with huge losses on both sides, possibly in the tens of thousands, and the near total destruction of the city itself. We’ll see if it holds. Looking at the photos of this annihilated town, I realized that I keep forgetting I visited Bakhmut once. It was nine years ago, in August 2014 — not long after the separatist militia backed up by Russia, was booted out of there. Back then . . . READ MORE . . .
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The war in Ukraine was provoked—and why that matters to achieve peace, by Jeffrey Sachs | Common Dreams The Biden team uses the word “unprovoked” incessantly. Mainstream media friendly to Biden parrot the White House. There were in fact two main U.S. provocations. The first was the U.S. intention to expand NATO to Ukraine and Georgia in order to surround Russia in the Black Sea region by NATO countries.* The second was the U.S. role in installing a Russophobic regime in Ukraine by the violent 2014 overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russian President, Viktor Yanukovych. The shooting war . . . READ MORE . . .
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