Ukraine updates: Kramatorsk attack death toll rises

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Russian President Vladimir Putin had been "weakened" by the Wagner mercenary group's mutiny, but that the ultimate consequences of the rebellion remained unclear.

In his first extensive comments about the aborted rebellion, Scholz said it would "surely have long-term consequences in Russia." 

"I do believe that he (Putin) is weakened," Scholz told German public broadcaster ARD.

"It shows that the autocratic structures, the power structures, have cracks and he in no way sits as firmly in the saddle as he always claims," the German leader said.

Scholz said Germany and its Western partners would be keeping a close eye on further developments. "Russia is a nuclear power, it is a very powerful country and that is why we have to watch very carefully when dangerous situations arise," he said.

Scholz also said it was unclear whether the Wagner mutiny "would make it easier or harder" to end the war. He said Western allies were "supporting Ukraine so it can defend itself" but stressed that "the goal of our support for Ukraine is not regime change in Russia."

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has arrived in Washington DC for talks with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

"During his inaugural visit to Washington, Minister Pistorius has a lot to discuss with our US partners and friends," German Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter.

Pistorius and Austin were expected to discuss Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, bilateral issues and preparations for the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius next month.

It is Pistorius' first visit to the United States as defense minister. He had planned to visit in April but canceled the trip due to the Sudan crisis.

Pistorius and Austin already know each other from consultations of the so-called Ukraine Contact Group, through which dozens of countries coordinate their military aid to Kyiv.

Ukraine, which has been under attack from Russia for 16 months, wants to produce all its own weapons and armaments in the future, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

"Our soldiers will always have weapons," Zelenskyy said in parliament on the occasion of Ukraine's Constitution Day. 

Until now, the country has received missiles, tanks and air defense systems from the West.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine will have a sufficiently strong armament complex to meet the needs of its army, fleet, air force and cyber forces. 

Earlier, the Ukrainian government confirmed Herman Smetanin, 31, as the new head of the state-owned defense company Ukroboronprom.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine wanted to receive a signal from NATO that it can join the military alliance after the war ends. 

"We understand that we cannot be a member of NATO during the war, but we need to be sure that after the war we will be," Zelenskyy told a press conference with the visiting Polish and Lithuanian presidents.

"That is the signal we want to get — that after the war Ukraine will be a member of NATO," Reuters news agency cited Zelenskyy as saying.

Reiterating Kyiv's stance before a NATO summit in Lithuania next month, Zelenskyy said Ukraine also wanted security guarantees for the period until it can join the alliance.

US President Joe Biden has called Vladimir Putin a "pariah" and said he is "losing" the war in Ukraine.

Asked by reporters at the White House whether the Russian president had been weakened by a rebellion launched by Wagner mercenaries over the weekend, Biden said: "It's hard to tell, but he's clearly losing the war" and "he's losing the war at home, and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world."

The White House remains cautious on interpreting the fallout from last week's extraordinary events in Russia where the forces from the Wagner group mutinied and threatened to attack Moscow, before reversing course.

The Swiss government has rejected a request by the Swiss arms company RUAG, which planned to sell its 96 stored Leopard 1 tanks to Germany, where they would be repaired and then shipped to Ukraine.

Such a sale would be contrary to the Swiss war material act and would entail an adjustment of Switzerland's neutrality policy, the Cabinet said. According to Swiss law, no war material may be delivered to countries that are involved in an armed conflict. 

Bern said this applies regardless of whether a country like Ukraine has been attacked and wants to defend itself.

For the same reason, Bern also refuses to authorize the transfer of Swiss tank ammunition to Ukraine.

A Vatican envoy has arrived in Moscow for two days of talks seeking a possible resolution to the conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

"We highly appreciate the Vatican's efforts and initiatives to seek a peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis and welcome the pope's aspiration to make his contribution to ending the armed conflict in Ukraine," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Matteo Zuppi as the Vatican's special envoy for the Ukraine war and sent him to Moscow. 

Zuppi's visit is to promote "gestures of humanity," the Holy See announced. According to the statement, the trip is intended to help "find a solution to the current tragic situation and ways for a just peace."

Zuppi, who is also president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, already traveled to Kyiv in early June. At that time, the main aim of the initiative was to listen to Ukraine and to sound out what possibilities there are to achieve a just peace. 

Leading Belarusian opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said the presence of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in Belarus is "a threat to our independence."

Regarding comments by Belarusian strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko that Belarus could benefit from the presence of Wagner mercenaries, Tsikhanouskaya said: "We don't want Belarus to be involved in this war, in this Russian war. But now we see that the war is escalating to our territory."

But Lukashenko is ultimately dependent on Putin, not Prigozhin, the opposition leader made clear.

"Lukashenko is fully loyal to Putin, he will fulfill all the orders of Putin. And if let's imagine Putin gives Lukashenko the order to get rid of Prigozhin, he will do this," she said.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said during a visit to Kyiv that his country and Lithuania would do "everything" to help Ukraine become a NATO member.

"We are trying to ensure that the decisions made at the (NATO) summit clearly indicate the perspective of membership, we are conducting talks on this issue with our allies," Duda told a press conference.

The Lithuanian and Polish presidents visited Kyiv to meet their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a show of support for Ukraine's bids to join the defense alliance and the EU, ahead of summits of both bodies.
 

The Kremlin has poured cold water on a New York Times report that a senior general, Sergei Surovikin, may have had advance knowledge of the Wagner Group rebellion.

The publication cited US officials briefed on American intelligence, who were trying to find out if Surovikin helped plan Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's actions last weekend.

"There are now around these events a lot of different speculation and gossip," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, according to Russian news agencies. "I think this is an example of that."

During the uprising, the army and the population "all appealed to the President (Vladimir Putin)," Peskov said.

Surovikin has often been praised by Prigozhin. The general has not been seen in public since he appeared in a video message in which he called on Prigozhin to end the power struggle.

Moscow has dismissed UN allegations that it has violated children's rights in Ukraine, arguing that its forces were trying to "save children."

In a report released on Tuesday by the UN's Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, over 900 cases of arbitrary detentions, including children and the elderly, were documented. According to the report, the vast majority of cases were perpetrated by Russian forces.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular briefing that Moscow "firmly rejects" the allegations.

"Our military, repeatedly risking their own lives, took measures to save children, to take them out from under shelling, which, by the way, was carried out by the armed forces of Ukraine against civilian infrastructure," he said.

The International Criminal Court in March issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow's envoy for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegally deporting children from Ukraine.

Russia has claimed it only attacks military targets and not civilians following a missile strike that hit a pizza restaurant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.

Ukrainian authorities say the death toll has now risen to at least 10 people people, including three children.

"The Russian Federation does not strike at civilian infrastructure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Strikes are carried out on objects that are connected with military infrastructure in one way or another," Peskov said.

Authorities say at least 61 people in injured in the attacks, which obliterated a restaurant.

At least three people have been killed by Russian shelling in eastern Ukraine's Kharkiv region according to the local governor.

"Unfortunately, as a result of this shelling, three civilians in the village of Vovchanski Khutory were killed near their homes," governor Oleh Synehubov said in a post on Telegram messaging app. The victims were men aged 45, 48 and 57.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has defended his policy towards Russia during his time in office in an interview with local broadcaster RTL.

Schröder, of the governing center-left Social Democrat (SPD) party, served as chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and has faced criticism over his involvement with Russian state-owned enterprises along with his relationship with President Vladimir Putin. Criticism has intensified since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Schröder told RTL that negative reporting about him "hits me but doesn't really hurt" because "I was and am of the opinion that what I did politically related to Russia was right — and I still believe that was right."

"Criticize what I've done or don't, but don't expect any renunciations from me. There is too much swearing off at the moment," Schröder said.

The comments were broadcast as part of a documentary about German daily Bild  and its former editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann.

Lithuania will be purchasing two NASAMS air defense systems for Ukraine according to the country's defense ministry.

The weapons systems will come at a cost of € 9.8 million ($10.7 million) and are expected to be delivered withing the next three months.

"We are purchasing updated NASAMS rocket launcher systems, which are fully prepared for Ukraine army to integrate into their fire control units, so it supplements and expands the already used NASAMS donated by Norway and the US," said Lithuania's defence minister, Arvydas Anusauskas.

Norway will be supplying maintenance equipment for the launchers as part of the deal.