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Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has confirmed infighting in the Kremlin inner circle and that the government has lost centralized control over the Russian information space, a Washington-based think tank reports.
The Institute for the Study of War’s latest assessment on the war in Ukraine said Zakharova made the statements Saturday at a Moscow forum on technology and information. The assessment says Zakharova acknowledged the Kremlin cannot replicate the Stalinist approach of establishing a modern equivalent to the Soviet Information Bureau to centrally control Moscow’s message because of fighting among unspecified Kremlin “elites.”
The assessment suggests Zakharova may have openly discussed these issues to tamp down expectations that Kremlin leaders will publicly agree on policy.
“Zakharova’s statement is noteworthy and supports several of ISW’s longstanding assessments about deteriorating Kremlin regime and information space control dynamics,” the assessment says.
‘THIS IS INHUMANE’: Poland, Slovakia ready to send fighter jets to Kyiv; Russian missiles engulf Ukraine: Updates
Developments:
►Luxembourg will send 14 armored ambulances to Ukraine, the Ukraine embassy in Belgium said in a Facebook post Sunday: The “vehicles will be sent to the frontline where they will carry out their main mission – to save the lives of our defenders.”
►The British government urged the Olympics’ biggest sponsors to pressure the International Olympic Committee to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Games in Paris. British Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer says Moscow will use sports for propaganda during the war in Ukraine.
►Thousands of Ukrainians gathered in Kyiv to say goodbye to Dmytro Kotsiubailo, killed in action near Bakhmut on March 7. Kotsiubailo, 27, was among the most decorated Ukrainian soldiers and was awarded the Hero of Ukraine in 2021.
Wagner mercenaries reportedly struggling to advance on Bakhmut
Wagner Group mercenaries are likely becoming “increasingly pinned” in urban areas in and around Bakhmut and are finding it difficult to make significant advances in the eastern region that has been the primary focus of Russia’s war in recent weeks, an assessment from the Institute for the Study of War says. Russian forces continued ground attacks Saturday in and around Bakhmut but did not make any confirmed advances within the city, the assessment says.
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin apparently drew to within almost a mile of Bakhmut’s administrative center, but several Russian military bloggers claimed Ukrainian forces appeared to be preparing for a counteroffensive in Bakhmut, the assessment says.
Colonel Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the Ukrainian Eastern Group of Forces, said fighting in Bakhmut was more intense last week than in the previous week.
SBU: Ukrainian soldier seen getting killed in video positively identified
The soldier who defiantly says, “Glory to Ukraine” before apparently being executed by Russians in a grisly scene captured on an unverified video has been positively identified by Ukrainian authorities.
His name was Oleksandr Matsievsky and he was a sniper with the 163rd Battalion of the 119th Territorial Defense Brigade of the Chernihiv province, the Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement Sunday. Matsiyevsky was reported missing just north of Bakhmut in late December and killed on Dec. 30, the SBU said, adding that his body was returned to his family in February.
After the video was released Monday, the Ukrainian military tentatively identified the slain soldier as Tymofiy Shadura of the 30th Mechanized Brigade, but that soon evoked doubts. Matsievsky’s name surfaced later in the week and the SBU said it confirmed he was indeed the victim through communication with his relatives, forensic examination, and examining photos and videos.
The brief clip that shows him smoking a cigarette in a wooded field, responding to a voice in Russian with the Ukrainian national salute, and then getting hit with several shots as insults are heard in Russian has evoked outrage in Ukraine after circulating on social media.
“We will do everything to make these inhumans suffer the deserved punishment,” SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk said in the statement.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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