Europe
Russian attacks in Ukraine leave 3 killed, 17 wounded. Spain highlights European support for Kyiv
Ukrainian officials reported more civilian casualties from Russian shelling in the country’s east and south on Saturday, as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez began a visit to Kyiv as a show of continuing support from Madrid and the European Union for Ukraine’s fight to dislodge invading Russian forces.
In an address to Ukraine’s parliament that received several standing ovations, Sánchez said, “We’ll be with you as long as it takes.”
“I am here to express the firm determination of the European (Union) and Europe against the illegal and unjustified Russian aggression to Ukraine,” he said on the day that Spain took over the six-month rotating presidency of the 27-nation EU.
Read: Ukraine accuses local man of directing missile strike that killed 10 at popular pizza restaurant
At a later news conference with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sanchez announced Spain would deliver more heavy weaponry to Ukraine including four Leopard tanks and armored personnel carriers, as well as a portable field hospital. He also said Spain will provide an additional 55 million euros to help with reconstruction needs.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, regional officials reported that at least three civilians were killed and 17 wounded by Russian shelling on Friday and overnight in the front-line eastern Donetsk region, where fierce battles are raging, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported that fierce clashes continued in three areas in Donetsk where it said Russia has massed troops and attempted to advance. It named the outskirts of three cities — Bakhmut, Lyman and Marinka — as front-line hot spots.
Five people including a child were wounded on Friday and overnight in the Kherson region in the south, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said. Prokudin said that Russian forces launched 82 artillery, drone, mortar shell and rocket attacks on the province, which is cut in two by a stretch of the 1,500-kilometer (930 mile) front line and still reeling from flooding unleashed by the collapse earlier this month of a major Dnipro river dam.
In the northeastern Kharkiv region, Russian shelling over the previous day wounded a 57-year-old civilian man, said Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. In the Sumy region farther west, a teenage boy was hurt in a strike from across the Russian border, the local military administration reported.
Referring to possible peace talks, Sanchez said that “only Ukraine can set the terms and times for peace negotiations. Other countries and regions are proposing peace plans. Their involvement is much appreciated, but, at the same time, we can’t accept them entirely.
“This is a war of aggression, with an aggressor and a victim. They cannot be treated equally and ignoring the rules should in no way be rewarded. That is why that is why we support President Zelenskyy’s peace formula,” Sánchez added.
Zelenskyy at the news conference expressed frustration about the lack of clarity over Western training for Ukrainian fighter pilots. He said Western allies have not yet set a timetable to train pilots on U.S.-made F-16s despite their expressions of readiness. “I think that some partners are delaying this process, why they do this I have no idea,” he said.
Read: With Russia revolt over, mercenaries' future and direction of Ukraine war remain uncertain
He also renewed Ukraine’s claim that Russia is prepared to cause a potential nuclear catastrophe at the Moscow-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as Ukraine continues to make steady advances along the front line.
“Russia is technically ready to provoke a local explosion at the station that could cause an emission of dangerous substances in the air. We are clearly communicating, we discussed the need with our partners so everyone understands why Russia is doing this,” he said.
The introduction of F-16s to the war could give Ukraine a much needed edge over Russia, which currently enjoys air superiority.
Read more: Russian mercenary chief says his forces are rebelling, some left Ukraine and entered Russia city
Why social media is being blamed for fueling the riots in France
Social media companies are once again under scrutiny, this time in France as the country's president blames TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms for helping fuel widespread riots over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron accused social media of playing a "considerable role" in encouraging copycat acts of violence as the country tries to tamp down protests that surfaced long-simmering tensions between police and young people in the country.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said police made 917 arrests on Thursday alone. More than 300 police officers have also been injured attempting to quell the rioting over the death of the teenager, who is of north African descent and has only has been identified by his first name, Nahel.
Macron, who in tandem castigated video games for the rioting, said the French government would work with social media sites to take down "the most sensitive content" and identify users who "call for disorder or exacerbate the violence."
600 arrested and 200 police officers hurt on France’s 3rd night of protests over teen’s killing
WHY IS THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT CONCERNED?
A French official, speaking anonymously in line with the presidency's customary practices, cited an example of the name and address of the police officer who shot at Nahel being published on social media. A prison officer also has seen his professional card going online, the official said, suggesting it could put the person's life and family at risk.
During his speech on Friday, Macron did not specify what type of content he viewed as "sensitive," but he said he expected "a spirit of responsibility" from the social media platforms.
Talks between the government and social media platform, including Snapchat and Twitter, have started with the aim to speed up the process to remove content inciting to violence, the official said. The French government is also pushing for identifying people who launch calls for violence but it's still at the "discussion" stage.
Fiery protests grip France for 3rd night over deadly police shooting of a teenager
Darmanin said that in a meeting with social networks, he'd delivered a warning that they can't allow themselves to be used as channels for calls to violence.
"They were very cooperative," he said. "We'll see tonight if they really are."
Darmanin said on Friday that French authorities will provide social media companies with "as much information as possible" so that, in return, they get identities of people who incite violence, adding that authorities will "pursue every person who uses these social networks to commit violent acts."
He also said that the country will take "all necessary measures if we become aware that social networks, whoever they are, don't respect the law."
WHAT DOES FRENCH LAW SAY?
France has a law against cyber harassment. Online threats of crimes, like rape and murder, as well as online insults can be prosecuted.
But in reality, it's very rare.
France will deploy 40,000 police officers to quell violence that followed deadly police shooting
In 2020, the country's parliament approved a bill that would compel platforms and search engines to remove prohibited content within 24 hours. A year later, a French court convicted 11 of 13 people charged with harassing and threatening a teenager who harshly criticized Islam in online post. But the people charged were only those who could be tracked down.
WHAT ARE SOCIAL MEDIA SITES SAYING?
Rachel Racusen, spokesperson for Snapchat, one of the social media platforms Macron blamed for contributing to the upheaval, said that since Tuesday, it has increased its moderation to detect and act on content related to the riots in France.
"Violence has devastating consequences and we have zero tolerance for content that promotes or incites hatred or violent behavior on any part of Snapchat," Racusen said. "We proactively moderate this type of content and when we find it, we remove it and take appropriate action. We do allow content that is factually reporting on the situation."
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But many of the others are keeping mum. TikTok as well as Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately reply for comment on Friday. Twitter answered only with an automated reply of a poop emoji, as it has done for months under Elon Musk's tenure.
HOW DO SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS TYPICALLY RESPOND?
Social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter often police people calling for violence because it can go against their policies.
But they also remove material posted on their platforms in order to comply with local laws and government requests, some of which can be controversial. A recent example was Twitter's decision in May to censor speech at the behest of Turkey's government in the leadup of the country's presidential elections.
Snapchat says on its website that it cooperates with law enforcement and government agencies to fulfill "valid requests" for information that can help during investigations.
The company receives many requests year-round. Its latest transparency report for the second half of 2022 showed it received the most requests from the U.S. government, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany. Officials in France put in 100 emergency requests for user information that includes some identifiers for accounts, such as email address and phone number. The company said it produced "some data" in 54% of those requests.
During the same period, TikTok's transparency report showed it got far less requests — under 20 — from the French government. It removed or restricted content — or accounts — for 86% of those requests.
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Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley who stepped down in January from TikTok's U.S. content advisory council, said if a government asks for a specific piece of content to be taken down because it violates local law, most platforms will comply.
But he said the feasibility of requests also depends on the platform, as well as the breadth and rationale for the request. If a government "asks for a broad takedown of tens of thousands of pieces of content, then this may be met with more resistance," Farid said.
Emma Llansó, director of the Center for Democracy & Technology's Free Expression Project, says that although it's appropriate for online services to remove speech that legitimately incites violence, they should tread carefully, especially on requests that can be sweeping and overly broad.
During passionate political debate and public outcry, Llansó said people might use very heated language or "use allusions to violence" without having any intent to actually incite or commit violent acts.
"What the young people in France are doing right now is protesting against state violence, which is a crucial kind of political activity," Llansó said. "And so, how social media companies respond in this moment is really influential over people being able to find their political voice. It's an incredibly difficult line to walk."
600 arrested and 200 police officers hurt on France’s 3rd night of protests over teen’s killing
Protesters erected barricades, lit fires and shot fireworks at police who responded with tear gas and water cannons in French streets overnight as tensions grew over the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old that has shocked the nation. More than 600 people were arrested and at least 200 police officers injured as the government struggled to restore order on a third night of unrest.
Armored police vehicles rammed through the charred remains of cars that had been flipped and set ablaze in the northwestern Paris suburb of Nanterre, where a police officer shot the teen identified only by his first name, Nahel. On the other side of Paris, protesters lit a fire at the city hall of the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois and set a bus depot ablaze in Aubervilliers.
In several Paris neighborhoods, groups of people hurled firecrackers at security forces. The police station in the city’s 12th district was attacked, while some shops were looted along Rivoli street, near the Louvre museum, and at the Forum des Halles, the largest shopping mall in central Paris.
In the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, police sought to disperse violent groups in the city center, regional authorities said.
President Emmanuel Macron planned to leave an EU summit in Brussels, where France plays a major role in European policymaking, to return to Paris and hold an emergency security meeting Friday.
READ: Fiery protests grip France for 3rd night over deadly police shooting of a teenager
Some 40,000 police officers were deployed to quell the protests. Police detained 667 people, the interior minister said; 307 of those were in the Paris region alone, according to the Paris police headquarters.
Around 200 police officers were injured, according to a national police spokesperson. No information was available about injuries among the rest of the population.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Friday denounced what he called a night of “rare violence.” His office described the arrests as a sharp increase on previous operations as part of an overall government efforts to be “extremely firm” with rioters.
The government has stopped short of declaring a state of emergency — a measure taken to quell weeks of rioting around France that followed the accidental death of two boys fleeing police in 2005.
The police officer accused of pulling the trigger Tuesday was handed a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide after prosecutor Pascal Prache said his initial investigation led him to conclude “the conditions for the legal use of the weapon were not met.” Preliminary charges mean investigating magistrates strongly suspect wrongdoing but need to investigate more before sending a case to trial.
The detained police officer’s lawyer, speaking on French TV channel BFMTV, said the officer was sorry and “devastated.” The officer did what he thought was necessary in the moment, attorney Laurent-Franck Lienard told the news outlet.
“He doesn’t get up in the morning to kill people,” Lienard said of the officer, whose name has not been released as per French practice in criminal cases. “He really didn’t want to kill.”
The shooting captured on video shocked France and stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects and other disadvantaged neighborhoods.
READ: France will deploy 40,000 police officers to quell violence that followed deadly police shooting
The teenager’s family and their lawyers haven’t said the police shooting was race-related and they didn’t release his surname or details about him.
Still, anti-racism activists renewed complaints about police behavior.
“We have to go beyond saying that things need to calm down,” said Dominique Sopo, head of the campaign group SOS Racisme. “The issue here is how do we make it so that we have a police force that when they see Blacks and Arabs, don’t tend to shout at them, use racist terms against them and in some cases, shoot them in the head.”
Race was a taboo topic for decades in France, which is officially committed to a doctrine of colorblind universalism. But some increasingly vocal groups argue that this consensus conceals widespread discrimination and racism.
Deadly use of firearms is less common in France than in the United States, although 13 people who didn’t comply with traffic stops were fatally shot by French police last year. This year, another three people, including Nahel, have died under similar circumstances. The deaths have prompted demands for more accountability in France, which also saw protests against racial injustice after George Floyd’s killing by police in Minnesota.
In Nanterre, a peaceful march Thursday afternoon in honor of Nahel was followed by escalating confrontations, with smoke billowing from cars and garbage bins set ablaze.
Tensions rose in places across France throughout the day. In the usually tranquil Pyrenees town of Pau in southwestern France, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a police office, national police said. Vehicles were set on fire in Toulouse and a tramway train was torched in a suburb of Lyon, police said. Some towns, such as Clamart on the French capital’s southwest suburbs and Neuilly-sur-Marne in the eastern suburbs, imposed precautionary overnight curfews.
Bus and tram services in the Paris area shut as a precaution, and many tram lines remained shut for Friday morning rush hour.
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The unrest extended as far as Belgium’s capital Brussels, where about a dozen people were detained during scuffles related to the shooting in France and several fires were brought under control.
Prache, the Nanterre prosecutor, said officers tried to stop Nahel because he looked so young and was driving a Mercedes with Polish license plates in a bus lane. He allegedly ran a red light to avoid being stopped then got stuck in traffic.
Both officers said they drew their guns to prevent him from fleeing. The officer who fired the shot said he feared he and his colleague or someone else could be hit by the car, according to Prache.
The scenes in France’s suburbs echoed 2005, when the deaths of 15-year-old Bouna Traoré and 17-year-old Zyed Benna led to three weeks of riots, exposing anger and resentment in neglected housing projects. The boys were electrocuted after hiding from police in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois.
Fiery protests grip France for 3rd night over deadly police shooting of a teenager
French protesters erected barricades, lit fires and shot fireworks at police in the streets of some French cities early Friday morning as tensions mounted over the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old that has shocked the nation.
Armored police vehicles rammed through the charred remains of cars that had been flipped and set ablaze in the northwestern Paris suburb of Nanterre, where a police officer shot the teen who is only being identified by his first name, Nahel. On the other side of Paris, protesters lit a fire at the city hall of the suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois.
In the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, police sought to disperse violent groups in the city center, regional authorities said.
Tens of thousands of police officers have been deployed to quell the protests, which have gripped the country three nights in a row. On Thursday, 100 people had been arrested by midnight, according to a national police spokesperson. The number was expected to rise as arrests underway were being tallied.
The police officer accused of pulling the trigger Tuesday was handed a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide after prosecutor Pascal Prache said his initial investigation led him to conclude “the conditions for the legal use of the weapon were not met.”
The detained police officer’s lawyer, speaking on French TV channel BFMTV, said the officer was sorry and “devastated.” The officer did what he thought was necessary in the moment, attorney Laurent-Franck Lienard told the news outlet.
“He doesn’t get up in the morning to kill people,” Lienard said of the officer, whose name has not been released. “He really didn’t want to kill. But now he must defend himself, as he’s the one who’s detained and sleeping in prison.”
Tensions started to rise in Nanterre following a peaceful march Thursday afternoon in honor of Nahel, with smoke billowing from cars and garbage bins set ablaze despite government appeals for calm and vows that order would be restored.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the number of officers in the streets would reach 40,000, with 5,000 deployed in the Paris region alone.
“The professionals of disorder must go home,” Darmanin said. While there’s no need yet to declare a state of emergency — a measure taken to quell weeks of rioting in 2005 — he added: “The state’s response will be extremely firm.”
Tensions had started to rise throughout Thursday.
In the usually tranquil Pyrenees town of Pau in southwestern France, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a new police office, national police said. Vehicles were set on fire in Toulouse and a tramway train was torched in a suburb of Lyon, police said. Paris police said its officers made 40 arrests, some on the margins of the largely peaceful memorial march for the teen and others elsewhere.
Bus and tram services in the Paris area shut down before sunset as a precaution to safeguard transportation workers and passengers.
Read: France will deploy 40,000 police officers to quell violence that followed deadly police shooting
The town of Clamart, home to 54,000 people in the French capital’s southwest suburbs, said it was taking the extraordinary step of imposing an overnight curfew through Monday, citing “the risk of new public order disturbances.” The mayor of Neuilly-sur-Marne announced a similar curfew in that town in the eastern suburbs.
The unrest extended even to Brussels, the EU administrative home and Belgian capital city, where about a dozen people were detained during scuffles related to the shooting in France. Police spokeswoman Ilse Van de Keere said that several fires were brought under control and that at least one car was burned.
The shooting captured on video shocked France and stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects and other disadvantaged neighborhoods.
The teenager’s family and their lawyers haven’t said the police shooting was race-related and they didn’t release his surname or details about him.
Still, anti-racism activists renewed their complaints about police behavior.
“We have to go beyond saying that things need to calm down,” said Dominique Sopo, head of the campaign group SOS Racisme. “The issue here is how do we make it so that we have a police force that when they see Blacks and Arabs, don’t tend to shout at them, use racist terms against them and in some cases, shoot them in the head.”
Prache, the Nanterre prosecutor, said officers tried to stop Nahel because he looked so young and was driving a Mercedes with Polish license plates in a bus lane. He allegedly ran a red light to avoid being stopped then got stuck in traffic. Both officers involved said they drew their guns to prevent him from fleeing.
The officer who fired a single shot said he feared he and his colleague or someone else could be hit by the car, according to Prache. The officers said they felt “threatened” as the car drove off.
He said two magistrates are leading the investigation, as is common in France. Preliminary charges mean investigating judges strongly suspect wrongdoing but need to investigate more before sending the case to trial.
On Wednesday night, as violence raged in the streets for a second night, protesters shot fireworks and hurled stones at police in Nanterre, who fired repeated volleys of tear gas.
As demonstrations spread to other towns, police and firefighters struggled to contain protesters and extinguish blazes. Schools, police stations, town halls and other public buildings were damaged from Toulouse in the south to Lille in the north, with most of the damage in the Paris suburbs, according to a national police spokesperson.
Fire damaged the town hall in the Paris suburb of L’Ile-Saint-Denis, not far from the country’s national stadium and the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Darmanin said 170 officers had been injured in the unrest but none of the injuries was life-threatening. The number of civilians injured was not immediately released.
The scenes in France’s suburbs echoed 2005, when the deaths of 15-year-old Bouna Traoré and 17-year-old Zyed Benna led to three weeks of riots, exposing anger and resentment in neglected, crime-ridden suburban housing projects. The two boys were electrocuted after hiding from police in a power substation in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.
French President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency security meeting Thursday about the violence.
“These acts are totally unjustifiable,” Macron said at the beginning of the meeting, which aimed at securing hot spots and planning for the coming days “so full peace can return.”
Deadly use of firearms is less common in France than in the United States, though several people have died or sustained injuries at the hands of French police in recent years, prompting demands for more accountability. France also saw protests against racial profiling and other injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police in Minnesota.
A police spokesperson said 13 people who didn’t comply with traffic stops were fatally shot by police last year. This year, three people, including Nahel, have died in similar circumstances.
Russian general is believed to be detained in aftermath of Wagner mutiny, AP sources say
Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of the Russian group of forces fighting in Ukraine, is believed to have been detained days after mercenaries staged a revolt inside Russia, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Thursday, citing U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence assessments.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
It’s not clear whether Surovikin faces any charges or where he is being held, reflecting the opaque world of the Kremlin’s politics and uncertainty after the revolt.
But his reported detention comes days after Wagner Group mercenaries took over the military headquarters in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and were heading toward Moscow in what appears to have been an aborted insurrection.
Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin has spoken positively of Surovikin while criticizing the country’s military brass and suggested that he should be appointed the General Staff chief to replace Gen. Valery Gerasimov. The New York Times this week reported that U.S. officials believe Surovikin had advance knowledge of Prigozhin’s plan to stage the revolt.
The White House and the Kremlin declined to comment.
Surovikin, who has longtime links to Prigozhin, hasn’t been seen since the start of the rebellion when he posted a video urging an end to it.
A Russian military blogger, the Moscow Times, and the Financial Times reported that Surovikin, who is also the commander of the Russian air force, has been arrested.
Read: Wagner and Putin: What really happened?
There has been intense speculation that some top military officers may have colluded with Prigozhin and may now face punishment for the mutiny that briefly sent a virtually unchallenged march toward Moscow that Putin has labeled treason and a “stab in the back.”
Alexei Venediktov, former head of the Ekho Moskvy, a prominent independent radio station that was shut down by authorities after Moscow invaded Ukraine, said Surovikin and his close lieutenants haven’t been in contact with their families for three days, but stopped short of saying that he was detained.
Another prominent military messaging channel, Rybar, which is run by a former Defense Ministry press officer, reported a purge in the ranks was underway as authorities looked into allegations that some could have sided with Prigozhin.
Surovikin has been linked to Prigozhin since when both were active in Syria, where Russia has waged a military action since 2015 to shore up Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and to help him reclaim territory after a devastating civil war.
While Prigozhin had unleashed expletive-ridden insults at Shoigu and chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov before last week’s mutiny in which he demanded their ouster, he has continually praised Surovikin and suggested naming him to replace Gerasimov. When the rebellion began, however, Surovikin recorded a video urging a halt to the mutiny.
Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that U.S. officials believed that Surovikin had advance knowledge about the mutiny. Asked about that report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov shrugged it off as part of “speculations and gossip.”
On Thursday, Peskov refused to comment on whether Surovikin had been arrested.
Asked by the AP if the president still trusts Surovikin, he replied that Putin works with the defense minister and the chief of the General Staff and referred questions about officers to the Defense Ministry. He also referred all other questions about Surovikin and his status to the ministry.
As to whether Putin considers it necessary to dismiss military officials who had had links with Prigozhin, Peskov said “the issue isn’t my prerogative, and I have nothing to say on that.”
The bald, fierce-looking Surovikin, who was nicknamed “General Armageddon” by Western media for his brutal tactics in Syria and Ukraine, was credited with shoring up Russian defenses after Moscow’s retreat from broad areas of Ukrainian territory last fall amid a swift counteroffensive by Kyiv.
Named by Putin in the fall to lead Russian forces in Ukraine, Surovikin presided over the bombing campaign that targeted Ukraine’s power plants and other vital infrastructure but failed to knock out power supplies.
In January, Putin replaced him with Gerasimov, putting the General Staff chief in charge of the Russian battle in Ukraine. Surovikin was demoted to the position of Gerasimov’s deputy.
Gerasimov’s own fate also is unclear after the abortive mutiny. While Shoigu showed up at several events attended by Putin, Gerasimov was mysteriously absent.
If a purge is indeed underway, it could destabilize the military chain of command and erode troop morale amid the early stage of Ukraine’s latest counteroffensive and offer Kyiv a chance to reclaim more ground.
After last weekend's abortive rebellion in Russia, the fate of some top generals is unknown
Russia's president has succeeded in exiling Wagner mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a brief mutiny last week, but the fate of several top generals is still unclear.
There were unconfirmed reports that one of them with ties to Prigozhin has been arrested and another was mysteriously absent from several events attended by President Vladimir Putin and embattled Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The opaque world of the Kremlin's politics has led to intense speculation that some top military officers may have colluded with Prigozhin and may now face punishment for the mutiny that briefly sent a virtually unchallenged march toward Moscow that Putin has labeled treason and a "stab in the back."
The speculation focused on Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who has longtime links to Prigozhin and hasn't been seen since the start of the rebellion when he posted a video urging an end to it.
A Russian military blogger, the Moscow Times and the Financial Times reported that Surovikin, who is also the commander of the Russian air force, has been arrested.
Alexei Venediktov, former head of the Ekho Moskvy, a prominent independent radio station that was shut down by authorities after Moscow invaded Ukraine, said Surovikin and his close lieutenants haven't been in contact with their families for three days, but stopped short of saying that he was detained.
Another prominent military messaging channel, Rybar, which is run by a former Defense Ministry press officer, reported a purge in the ranks was underway as authorities looked into allegations that some could have sided with Prigozhin.
Also read: Putin says the aborted rebellion played into the hands of Russia’s enemies
Surovikin has been linked to Prigozhin since when both were active in Syria, where Russia has waged a military action since 2015 to shore up Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and to help him reclaim territory after a devastating civil war.
While Prigozhin had unleashed expletive-ridden insults at Shoigu and chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov before last week's mutiny in which he demanded their ouster, he has continually praised Surovikin. When the rebellion began, however, Surovikin recorded a video urging a halt to the mutiny.
Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that U.S. officials believed that Surovikin had advance knowledge about the mutiny. Asked about that report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov shrugged it off as part of "speculations and gossip."
Also read: US, NATO had no involvement in Wagner's 'short-lived' revolt in Russia: Biden
On Thursday, Peskov refused to comment on whether Surovikin had been arrested.
Asked by The Associated Press if the president still trusts Surovikin, he replied that Putin works with the defense minister and the chief of the General Staff and referred questions about officers to the Defense Ministry. He also referred all other questions about Surovikin and his status to the ministry.
As to whether Putin considers it necessary to dismiss military officials who had had links with Prigozhin, Peskov said "the issue isn't my prerogative, and I have nothing to say on that."
The bald, fierce-looking Surovikin, who was nicknamed "General Armageddon" by Western media for his brutal tactics in Syria and Ukraine, was credited with shoring up Russian defenses after Moscow's retreat from broad areas of Ukrainian territory last fall amid a swift counteroffensive by Kyiv.
Named by Putin in the fall to lead Russian forces in Ukraine, Surovikin presided over the bombing campaign that targeted Ukraine's power plants and other vital infrastructure but failed to knock out power supplies.
Also read: Wagner chief breaks his silence after aborted mutiny
In January, Putin replaced him with Gerasimov, putting the General Staff chief in charge of the Russian battle in Ukraine. Surovikin was demoted to the position of Gerasimov's deputy.
Gerasimov's own fate also is unclear after the abortive mutiny. While Shoigu showed up at several events attended by Putin, Gerasimov was mysteriously absent.
If a purge is indeed underway, it could destabilize the military chain of command and erode troop morale amid the early stage of Ukraine's latest counteroffensive and offer Kyiv a chance to reclaim more ground.
Also read: Russian defense minister makes first public appearance since mercenary revolt as uncertainty swirls
France will deploy 40,000 police officers to quell violence that followed deadly police shooting
France will deploy 40,000 police officers overnight to quell violence that engulfed cities and towns in the wake of a deadly police shooting, France's interior minister said Thursday.
Scores of police officers have been injured, according to ministers.
The justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, gave a figure of 130 police officers injured.
"All this has to stop," the minister declared. He gave no details about the types and seriousness of the injuries.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who oversees the police, later gave a higher figure of 170 injured.
He said none of the injuries were life-threatening.
A French police officer who shot and killed a 17-year-old driver will be investigated for voluntary homicide, following two days of fires and violent protests, prosecutors said Thursday.
Overnight, protesters set cars and public buildings ablaze in Paris suburbs and unrest spread to some other French cities and towns, despite increased security efforts and the president's calls for calm.
The killing of 17-year-old Nahel during a traffic check Tuesday, captured on video, shocked the country and stirred up long-simmering tensions between young people and police in housing projects and other disadvantaged neighborhoods around France.
Nahel's surname has not been released by authorities or by his family. In earlier statements, lawyers for the family spelled the name Nael.
Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said that based on an initial investigation, he concluded that "the conditions for the legal use of the weapon were not met."
Two magistrates have been named to lead the investigation, he said. Under the French legal system, which differs from the U.S. and British systems, magistrates often assigned to lead investigations.
Prache said he requested that the officer be held in custody. That decision is to be made by another magistrate.
In a separate case, a police officer who fatally shot a 19-year-old Guinean man in western France earlier this month was handed preliminary charges of "voluntary homicide," according to a statement by the local prosecutor on Wednesday. The man was fatally shot by an officer as he allegedly tried to escape a traffic stop. The investigation is still ongoing.
Clashes first erupted Tuesday night in and around the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where Nahel was killed, and the government deployed 2,000 police to maintain order Wednesday. But violence resumed after dusk.
Police and firefighters struggled to contain protesters and extinguish numerous blazes through the night that damaged schools, police stations and town halls or other public buildings, according to a spokesperson for the national police. The national police on Thursday reported fires or skirmishes in multiple cities overnight, from Toulouse in the south to Lille in the north, though the nexus of tensions was Nanterre and other Paris suburbs.
Police arrested 150 people around the country, more than half of them in the Paris region, the spokesperson said. She was not authorized to be publicly named according to police rules.
Scenes of violence in France's suburban areas echo 2005, when the deaths of 15-year-old Bouna Traoré and 17-year-old Zyed Benna led to three weeks of nationwide riots, exposing anger and resentment in neglected, crime-ridden suburban housing projects.
The two boys entered a power substation to hide from police in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, and were electrocuted.
French President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency security meeting Thursday about the violence.
"These acts are totally unjustifiable," Macron said at the beginning of the meeting, which aimed at securing hot spots and planning for the coming days "so full peace can return."
Macron also said it was time for "remembrance and respect" as Nahel's mother called for a silent march Thursday in his honor on the square where he was killed.
Multiple vehicles were set ablaze in Nanterre and protesters shot fireworks and threw stones at police, who fired repeated volleys of tear gas. Flames shot out of three stories of a building, and a blaze was reported at an electrical plant. Fire damaged the town hall of the Paris suburb of L'Ile-Saint-Denis, not far from France's national stadium and the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The police officer accused of the killing is in custody on suspicion of manslaughter and could face preliminary charges as soon as Thursday, according to the Nanterre prosecutor's office.
French activists renewed calls to tackle what they see as systemic police abuse, particularly in neighborhoods like the one where Nahel lived, where many residents struggle with poverty and racial or class discrimination. Government officials condemned the killing and sought to distance themselves from the police officer's actions.
Macron called the killing "inexplicable and inexcusable" and called for calm. "Nothing justifies the death of a young person," he told reporters in Marseille on Wednesday.
Videos of the shooting shared online show two police officers leaning into the driver-side window of a yellow car before the vehicle pulls away as one officer fires into the window. The videos show the car later crashed into a post nearby.
The driver died at the scene, the prosecutor's office said.
Bouquets of orange and yellow roses now mark the site of the shooting, on Nanterre's Nelson Mandela Square.
Speaking to Parliament, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said, "the shocking images broadcast yesterday show an intervention that appears clearly not to comply with the rules of engagement of our police forces."
Deadly use of firearms is less common in France than in the United States, though several people have died or sustained injuries at the hands of French police in recent years, prompting demands for more accountability. France also saw protests against racial profiling and other injustice in the wake of George Floyd's killing by police in Minnesota.
The most recent government statistics available show that 17 people were killed after police and gendarmerie officers shot at them in 2021.
Asked about police abuses, Macron said justice should be allowed to run its course.
A lawyer for Nahel's family, Yassine Bouzrou, told The Associated Press they want the police officer prosecuted for murder instead of manslaughter.
French soccer star Kylian Mbappe, who grew up in the Paris suburb of Bondy, was among many shocked by what happened.
"I hurt for my France," he tweeted.
Ukraine accuses local man of directing missile strike that killed 10 at popular pizza restaurant
Ukrainian authorities arrested on Wednesday a man they accused of helping Russia direct a missile strike that killed at least 10 people, including three teenagers, at a popular pizza restaurant in east Ukraine.
The Tuesday evening attack on Kramatorsk wounded 61 other people, Ukraine’s National Police said, in the latest bombardment of a Ukrainian city, a tactic Russia has used heavily in the 16-month-old war.
The strike, and others elsewhere across Ukraine late Tuesday and early Wednesday, indicated that the Kremlin is not easing its aerial onslaught despite its political and military turmoil caused by a short-lived armed uprising last weekend.
There has been no apparent military push by Ukraine to exploit that turmoil, though the government has been tight-lipped about recent battlefield developments as it seeks to gain momentum in its recently launched counteroffensive.
The Kremlin reeled from the weekend mutiny led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the Wagner private army of prison recruits and other mercenaries which has played a key role for Russia in Ukraine. The rebellion was the gravest threat so far to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power.
Prigozhin went into exile in neighboring Belarus on Tuesday, according to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, after Russia said he wouldn’t face charges for the revolt. Prigozhin’s whereabouts could not be independently confirmed.
Read: With Russia revolt over, mercenaries' future and direction of Ukraine war remain uncertain
Two sisters, both age 14, died in the Kramatorsk attack, the city council’s educational department said. “Russian missiles stopped the beating of the hearts of two angels,” it said in a Telegram post.
The other dead teenager was 17, according to Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin.
The attack also damaged 18 multistory buildings, 65 houses, five schools, two kindergartens, a shopping center, an administrative building and a recreational building, regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
Rescuers are still searching the rubble for bodies and more survivors.
Officials initially blamed the strike in Kramatorsk on an S-300 missile, a surface-to-air weapon that Russia’s forces have repurposed for loosely targeted strikes on cities, but the National Police later said Iskander short-range ballistic missiles were used.
Kramatorsk is a front-line city that houses the Ukrainian army’s regional headquarters. The pizza restaurant was frequented by journalists, aid workers and soldiers, as well as local residents.
The Security Service of Ukraine said it detained a man whom it suspects directed the strike on the restaurant who is an employee of the local gas transportation company.
He filmed the restaurant for the Russians and informed them about its popularity, the Security Service said in a Telegram post.
Read: Russian mercenary chief says his forces are rebelling, some left Ukraine and entered Russia city
It provided no evidence for its claim. Russia has insisted during the war that it doesn’t aim at civilian targets, although its air strikes have killed many civilians. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov repeated that claim on Wednesday.
Kramatorsk is located in Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russia claimed to annex last September but does not fully control. Russia has also occupied Crimea since 2015.
Ukrainian-held parts of the partially occupied provinces have been hit especially hard by Russian bombardment and are a key barrier to resolving the war.
The Kremlin demands that Kyiv recognize the annexations, while Kyiv has ruled out any talks with Russia until its troops pull back from all occupied territories. Kyiv recently launched a much-anticipated counteroffensive to take back occupied territory.
Russia, meanwhile, has stepped up its air campaign in Ukraine while fighting continues along the front line.
Russian forces on Tuesday and overnight also shelled 16 settlements in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, the Ukrainian presidential office reported.
It said a 77-year-old civilian was killed in the front-line town of Orikhiv, and that Russian shelling wounded three people in a nearby village recently retaken by Kyiv.
Read more: Both sides suffer heavy casualties as Ukraine strikes back against Russia, UK assessment says
Also, a Russian supersonic cruise missile slammed into a cluster of holiday homes in central Ukraine, sparking a fire which injured a child, the presidential office said.
In other developments:
Pope Francis’ peace envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, was to meet with an aide to President Putin, Yury Ushakov, in Moscow on Wednesday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the talks would include “possible ways of political-diplomatic settlement.”
Francis dispatched Zuppi, a veteran of the Catholic Church’s peace initiatives, to Moscow in hopes of helping spur peace negotiations after his visit to Kyiv earlier this month. At the Vatican on Wednesday, Francis again appealed for an end to the war, praying that Ukrainians “may soon find peace: There is so much suffering in Ukraine, let us not forget that.”
US, NATO had no involvement in Wagner's 'short-lived' revolt in Russia: Biden
President Joe Biden on Monday said United States and NATO had no involvement in the short-lived insurrection in Russia by the Wagner Group mercenary force. He said it's "too early" to assess the impact on the war in Ukraine.
Biden said he held a video call with allies over the weekend and they are all in sync in working to ensure that they give Russian President Vladimir Putin "no excuse to blame this on the West" or NATO.
"We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it," Biden said. "This was part of a struggle within Russian system."
Also read: Wagner chief breaks his silence after aborted mutiny
Biden also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the weekend about the situation and said he intended to speak with him again later Monday or early Tuesday.
"I told him that no matter what happened in Russia, let me say again, no matter what happened in Russia, we in the United States would continue to support Ukraine's defense and sovereignty and its territorial integrity."
A feud between the Wagner Group leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and Russia's military brass that has festered throughout the war erupted into a mutiny that saw the mercenaries leave Ukraine to seize a military headquarters in a southern Russian city. They rolled for hundreds of kilometers toward Moscow, before turning around after less than 24 hours on Saturday.
Also read: Russian defense minister makes first public appearance since mercenary revolt as uncertainty swirls
Earlier Monday, Prigozhin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made public comments with both aiming to play down the crisis.
In an 11-minute audio statement, Prigozhin said he acted "to prevent the destruction of the Wagner private military company" and moved in response to an attack on a Wagner camp that killed some 30 of his fighters.
Also read: With Russia revolt over, mercenaries' future and direction of Ukraine war remain uncertain
Biden said much remains in flux in the aftermath of the most significant challenge to Putin's authority during his long tenure.
"We're going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend's events and the implications from Russia and Ukraine," Biden said. "But it's still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going."
Also read: Russian mercenaries' short-lived revolt could have long-term consequences for Putin
Wagner chief breaks his silence after aborted mutiny
The leader of the Wagner mercenary group defended his short-lived insurrection in an audio statement Monday, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made his first public appearance since the uprising that demanded his ouster, in a video aimed at projecting a sense of order after the country’s most serious political crisis in decades.
But uncertainty still swirled about his fate, as well as that of rebellion leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private army, the impact on the war in Ukraine, and even the political future of President Vladimir Putin.
In an 11-minute audio statement, Prigozhin denied trying to attack the Russian state and said he acted in response to an attack on his force that killed some 30 of his fighters.
“We started our march because of an injustice,” Prigozhin said in a recording that gave details about where he is or what his future plans are
A feud between the Wagner Group leader and Russia’s military brass that has festered throughout the war erupted into a mutiny that saw the mercenaries leave Ukraine to seize a military headquarters in a southern Russian city and roll seemingly unopposed for hundreds of miles toward Moscow, before turning around after less than 24 hours on Saturday.
The Kremlin said it had made a deal for Prigozhin to move to Belarus and receive amnesty, along with his soldiers. There was no confirmation of his whereabouts Monday, although a popular Russian news channel on Telegram reported he was seen at a hotel in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
Russian media reported a criminal probe against Prigozhin continued, and some lawmakers called for his head.
In a return to at least superficial normality, Moscow’s mayor announced an end to the “counterterrorism regime” imposed on the capital Saturday, when troops and armored vehicles set up checkpoints on the outskirts and authorities tore up roads leading into the city.
The Defense Ministry video of Shoigu came as Russian media speculated that he and other military leaders have lost Putin’s confidence and could be replaced.
Shoigu was shown in a helicopter and then meeting with officers at a military headquarters in Ukraine in video broadcast on Russian media, including state-controlled television. It was unclear when it was shot.
General Staff chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov, also a main target of Prigozhin’s ire, has not appeared in public.
It was unclear what would ultimately happen to Prigozhin and his forces under the deal purportedly brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Though his mutiny was brief, it was not bloodless. Russian media reported that several military helicopters and a military communications plane were shot down by Wagner forces, killing at least 15. The Defense Ministry has not commented. Prigozhin denied there were any casualties on his side, but media reports indicated the airstrikes hit some Wagner vehicles, and messaging app channels featured images of the damage.
The U.S. had intelligence that Prigozhin had been building up his forces near the border with Russia for some time, suggesting the revolt was planned. That conflicts with Prigozhin’s claim his rebellion was a response to a Friday attack on his field camps in Ukraine by the Russian military, which he said killed a large number of his men. The Defense Ministry denied that.
Russia’s RIA Novosti state news agency cited unidentified sources in the Prosecutor General’s office as saying the criminal case against Prigozhin hasn’t been closed, despite earlier Kremlin statements. The Interfax news agency carried a similar report.
Should the case continue, Prigozhin’s presence in Belarus — a staunch Kremlin ally — would offer little protection against arrest and extradition.
It was unclear what resources Prigozhin has to draw on, and how much of his substantial wealth he can access. Police searching his St. Petersburg office on the day of the rebellion found 4 billion rubles ($48 million) in trucks outside the building, according to Russian media reports confirmed by the Wagner boss. He claimed the money was intended to pay his soldiers’ families.
Russian media reported that Wagner offices in several Russian cities had reopened on Monday and the company had resumed enlisting recruits.
Several Russian lawmakers called for tight regulations of private military companies under a new law set to be considered — and some argued that Prigozhin must be punished.
Andrei Gurulev, a retired general and current lawmaker who has rowed with the mercenary leader, said Prigozhin and his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin, a former military officer who runs Wagner, deserve “a bullet in the head.”
“I firmly believe that traitors in wartime must be executed,” he said.
Prigozhin appeared nonchalant in some of the last video taken during the rebellion. As a convoy carrying him in an SUV drove out of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don after its brief occupation Saturday, he was asked how he viewed the result of his revolt, according to footage posted on Russian social media.
“It’s normal, we have cheered everyone up,” the mercenary chief responded.
Before the uprising, Prigozhin had blasted Shoigu and Gerasimov with expletive-ridden insults for months, attacking them for failing to provide his troops with enough ammunition during the fight for the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, the war’s longest and bloodiest battle.
Prigozhin’s rift with the military dates back years, to Russia’s intervention in Syria, where Wagner forces also were active.
Putin stood back from the feud and Shoigu and Gerasimov remained mum, possibly reflecting uncertainty about the president’s support. Observers said that by failing to end the feud, Putin had encouraged Prigozhin to raise the stakes dramatically.
Some analysts saw Prigozhin’s revolt as a desperate move to save Wagner from being dismantled after an order that all private military companies sign contracts with the Defense Ministry by July 1.
Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said on Twitter that Prigozhin’s mutiny “wasn’t a bid for power or an attempt to overtake the Kremlin,” but a desperate move amid his escalating rift with Russia’s military leadership.
While Prigozhin could get out of the crisis alive, he doesn’t have a political future in Russia under Putin, Stanovaya said.
Alex Younger, former head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency, said “everyone comes out of this weaker.”
He told the BBC that Prigozhin “didn’t have a plan, he didn’t have enough people” to succeed, while Putin looked indecisive, first vowing to crush the rebels, then striking a deal.
Russian media and commentators speculated that Shoigu could be replaced, but that Putin, who avoids making decisions under pressure, would likely wait before announcing a shakeup.
Putin held calls Monday with the leaders of Iran and Qatar, the Kremlin said, and addressed a forum of youth engineers in a pre-recorded video message that contained no mention of the mutiny.
It was not yet clear what the fissures opened by the 24-hour rebellion would mean for the war in Ukraine, where Western officials say Russia’s troops suffer low morale. Wagner’s forces were key to Russia’s only land victory in months, in Bakhmut.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense said Monday that Ukraine had “gained impetus” in its push around Bakhmut, making progress north and south of the town. Ukrainian forces claimed to have retaken Rivnopil, a village in an area of southeast Ukraine that has seen heavy fighting.
U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders of several of Ukraine’s European allies discussed events in Russia over the weekend, but Western officials have been muted in their public comments.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told broadcaster RT that U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy contacted Russian representatives Saturday to stress that the U.S. was not involved in the mutiny and considered it an internal Russian matter. There was no immediate confirmation from the U.S., although Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that U.S. officials had “engaged” with Russia to stress the importance of protecting U.S. citizens and interests.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that “the events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter.” The U.K. said “issues of regime in Russia are for Russia to resolve, first and foremost.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the revolt showed that the war is “cracking Russia’s political system.”
“The monster that Putin created with Wagner, the monster is biting him now,” Borrell said. “The monster is acting against his creator.”