10 May 2024 around 20:00 in the evening around 140 men stormed the #Poland border from #Belarus and were pushed back by Polish border force and army.
The times when small groups of actual migrants, including families with women and children, sneaked through the forest are long gone. Since around 2022 it’s exclusively young, masked men, often equipped with strobe lights and lasers and guided by uniformed Belarussian border guards. Granted that in 2022 Belarus welcomed a large group of “Wagner Group” mercenaries and employed them as instructors, speaking of “migrants” is no longer sustainable - these are coordinated attempts of storming EU border by men who can be Russian/Belarussian saboteurs or “Wagner” mercenaries, or any combination of these.
#Kremlin laundered $2.5 billion of African gold since the start of the invasion of Ukraine
Russia’s illicit activities & ties to authoritarian regimes in Africa have been monitored for years.
Blood #Gold Report reports Russia mercenaries, including #WagnerGroup, support destabilization in Africa as part of resource extraction schemes bringing #Russia more than $100 million/mo
1/ Ukrainian forces continue to hold positions in the east (left) bank of #Kherson Oblast. Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces control central Krynky (30km east of Kherson City and 2km from the #Dnipro River), and one prominent Russian milblogger claimed that Ukrainian forces marginally expanded their zone of control west of Krynky.
Geolocated footage published on October 30 confirms that #Russian forces hold positions in forest areas east of Krynky.
2/ Multiple Russian sources, including a #WagnerGroup-affiliated channel, complained about Russian forces’ lack of counterbattery, electronic warfare (EW), and command and control capabilities in the Kherson direction, particularly near Krynky.
Russian forces continued airstrikes against the west (right) bank of Kherson Oblast on October 30. The #Ukrainian Southern Operational Command stated that Russian forces used 37 KAB guided bombs to strike the west bank of Kherson Oblast.
'One argument against the hit job theory came from the #Kremlin -friendly president of neighbouring Belarus, Alexander #Lukashenko
"I know Putin, he is a calculating, calm and even a sluggish man, so i cannot imagine that he did that. It was a very rough, unprofessional job. very much unlike #Putin. But whatever happened, he will be blamed for that"
'The next commander of #Wagner would have to not only be able to control the actual manpower, they would also need to take over #Prigozhin ’s dealings with the Defence Ministry and the #Kremlin there are speculations that only someone from the Defence Ministry would be able to take control of Wagner. However, the #Wagnerites are not happy with that idea'
What next for the #WagnerGroup , #Russia 's blunt instrument abroad? More on #TheGlobalJigsaw https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5hlb
'the vast majority of #mercenaries are very opposed to the idea of #Wagner being run by #Russia 's defence ministry. They specifically joined Wagner to not fight under the ministry's ranks. #Wagnerites seem to support a man known as Lotus, his real name Anton Yelizarov. Lotus is a wagner commander who was responsible for training of fighters in Molkino, in Krasnodar territory'
More info on the #WagnerGroup 's future (if any) on #TheGlobalJigsaw https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5hlb
'for the #Kremlin to take this over means they have to consolidate their leadership and make sure that the #mercenaries are able to pledge allegiance to them.
in #Mali's case for instance they haven't acknowledged that they are working with the #wagnergroup as far as they're concerned, it's the #Russian government, so they might be more open towards moving in #Russia 's direction in determining the leadership of the group on a local level.'
CNN thinks precision strikes with drones against the #Sudanese#RSF who supported #Russia in its #WarInUkraine are possibly carried out by #Ukrainian special forces, raising the stakes for anyone supporting #russia
"Ukrainian special services were likely behind a series of drone strikes and a ground operation directed against a #Wagner-backed militia near Sudan’s capital, a CNN investigation has found,...."
I had heard about the gold of #Sudan being siphoned off into #Kremlin coffers before from trusted sources some months back. I don't recall the details, but it did not sound like legitimate "trading", rather corruption of #Sudanese officials and the involvement of the military state-sponsored mafia, the #wagnergroup. As #Wagner is also very active in the #WarInUkraine, it is an enemy combatant.
My memory (!) of the details might be wrong, by I saved this as a Wanger op.