First of all, the President of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, stated that he talked to the family of the Head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and confirmed that he is dead.
He also said that he does not believe that Putin assassinated Prigozhin because the assassination was allegedly too unprofessional for such a calculating man as Putin.
In the meantime, the Wagner cemetery created by Prigozhin is being leveled with the ground. An appalled man filmed how all the crosses were removed and said this disrespected the highest order.
Some Russian sources responded to this by claiming that the cemetery is being renovated and pyramids will replace the crosses. However, other sources pointed out that it looks like the ground is being prepared for being covered with concrete.
When it comes to yesterday’s Ukrainian special operation, where several crews raided the Russian military base near Olenivka, today, the Head of the Ukrainian Intelligence stated that apart from achieving direct military objectives and increasing the level of control over the Black Sea, the goal of this operation was also to show Ukrainians in Crimea that they are not forgotten and that Ukrainian Forces indeed can reach and land on the Crimean shore.
And the results of the increased activation of Ukrainian forces in and around Crimea can already be seen. For example, when Ukrainians started conducting consistent strikes on Crimea, many Russians who migrated to Crimea started leaving it.
When it comes to the landing operation, the fact that people see that the Ukrainians have the capability to liberate these territories makes more people convinced that helping Ukrainian Forces with information or by other means, such as sabotage, is not a lost cause, which in turn increases the efficiency of Ukrainian attacks.
Today, Ukrainians conducted one of the biggest and most successful drone strikes on Crimea.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that Ukrainians launched 42 drones. The drones were launched in two groups, and interestingly, they avoided the area where Ukrainians recently destroyed the Russian air defense system.
This means that Ukrainians knew that Russians would for sure reinforce the outer edge of the peninsula, inevitably at the expense of the central region.
That is why when the two groups of drones got close, they split into many smaller groups, moving in the direction of multiple strategic objects, such as airfields, oil depots, and power stations, which confused the Russian air defense operators as to which target to prioritize.
Russian sources reported that the air defense shot down only 9 drones. Russian sources claimed that all other drones were successfully intercepted with Electronic Warfare Systems, although noted that several intercepted drones still fell on the territory of the military bases and damaged several trucks.
Ukrainian sources reported that multiple drones successfully passed through all Russian air defense systems and hit an ammunition depot, a warehouse with equipment, and also an area of personnel concentration.
Locals reported that many soldiers were transported to the hospitals in Simferopol.
The explosions were also heard in Hvardiyske, which means that Ukrainians likely struck multiple bases in one night.
However, Ukrainians did not stop on Crimea. The same night, several groups of drones were launched in the direction of Moscow.
It turned out that the main target of the strike became yet another strategic airfield with Russian bombers Tu-22m3 that Russians use for launching missiles at Ukrainian cities.
The footage shows that the Russian air defense shot down several drones right above the airfield.
Moreover, Russian sources reported that Ukrainians launched a modified ballistic missile, S-200, which was reportedly shot down in the Kaluga region.
Overall, locals have filmed a lot of explosions around the airfield, so we will see whether any drones managed to inflict damage to the bombers or other aircraft on the base.
In our daily frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
