April 3, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian officials have dismissed the claim made Sunday by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin that “in legal terms” Russian forces hold the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut.

Prigozhin made the claim while raising a Russian flag in Bakhmut in honor of the murdered military journalist Vladlen Tatarsky. He said the flag was being raised at the site of the council building. Video later surfaced of a flag being raised amid some rubble.

Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told CNN that “all administrative buildings in Bakhmut have been destroyed. I don't even know which one he was talking about.”

By contrast, the official said Ukrainian forces only raised the flag once enemy units are expelled and stabilization measures are undertaken. 

Cherevatyi said that a significant part of Bakhmut remains completely under the control of the Ukrainian defense forces, so this is “just more wishful thinking” on Prigozhin’s part. 

“We are able to deliver everything we need there, including ammunition, medicine, food, and to take the wounded out of there,” he told CNN, adding that "the situation is very difficult but under our control and there are no signs of a systemic breakthrough or any significant operational success."

The Russians failed to surround Bakhmut and made no battlefield breakthroughs while still suffering heavy losses, Cherevatyi said.

“Over the past 24 hours alone, 154 occupiers were killed in the Bakhmut sector, primarily Wagner fighters, 144 were wounded, and one was taken prisoner," the official said.

Chervatyi said that so far Wagner's units continue to be the main Russian striking force in Bakhmut, but “because of significant losses, they are unable to act entirely on their own in this area today…We can see that airborne troops and motorized infantry units are being deployed.”

He said the Wagner chief tried to create the illusion of self-sufficiency, but had failed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke about the battlefield Monday, alluding to the expectation that Ukrainian forces might soon launch a counteroffensive.

NATO allies are “united in [their] determination to stay the course and support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference Monday.  

The secretary general warned that “any provision of lethal aid by China to Russia” would be a “major mistake,” but also highlighted that NATO has not seen any changes in Russia’s “nuclear posture” that requires any response from NATO.  

NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called for the “immediate release” of US national Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in Russia on spying charges last Friday.

“I join the United States in their call on Russia to release the American journalist Evan Gershkovich,” Stoltenberg said in a news conference Monday. “His arrest is of concern. It is important to respect freedom of the press, the rights of journalists, and the rights to ask questions and to do their jobs. Therefore, we call on his immediate release.” 

Russian authorities detained Gershkovich last week and accused him of spying, signaling a significant ratcheting of both Moscow’s tensions with the United States and its campaign against foreign news media, which has been under intense pressure since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. The Wall Street Journal categorically rejected those allegations, saying in a statement that it “vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter.”

Russia has arrested an anti-war activist named Daria Trepova in connection with the explosion which killed prominent blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and injured at least 32 others at a cafe in St. Petersburg on Sunday.

Elsewhere, Finland is set to officially become a member of the NATO military alliance at an accession ceremony in Brussels on Tuesday.

Here are the latest developments:

Russia's interior ministry released a short video of the female suspect who has been detained in connection with an explosion that killed a prominent Russian military blogger in St. Petersburg on Sunday.

In the video, a male voice asks the woman, identified by Russian authorities as Daria Trepova, if she understands why she has been detained.

She replies in the affirmative, and says she was detained for being at the scene of the murder of Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed in the bombing at the Street Food Bar No. 1 cafe in central St. Petersburg. 

Russian state media, quoting law-enforcement authorities and eyewitnesses, say an explosive device appeared to have been inside a figurine handed to Tatarsky by a woman at the cafe.

A male interrogator then asks Trepova what she did at the cafe. She replies that she brought the figurine, but declined to answer who gave it to her.

It is unclear whether Trepova was speaking under duress.

Human-rights advocates and international observers say Russian police routinely use torture and ill treatment to extract confessions. Russia's security service uses coercion and entrapment to recruit informants among Russia's opposition groups.

The husband of the woman alleged to have carried out the bombing that killed a prominent Russian military journalist on Sunday has said he is convinced she was "set up."

Dmitry Rylov told independent Russian publication The Insider that his wife had been detained at the apartment of a friend, who was also arrested.

"She was really just set up and used. Over the last day I contacted her, but I lost contact about four to five hours ago," Rylov, who is not in Russia, told The Insider at the time of the interview.

Daria Trepova was detained on Monday in connection with the explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, which killed prominent military journalist Vladlen Tatarsky and injured at least 32 others.

Speaking of the event during which the explosion occurred, Rylov said: "All I knew was that Daria needed, either for some task, or for some reason, to give some gift, I didn’t even know what."

"There is one very important point that she told me several times: She was sure that this thing would allow access to a person. That is, it was not something that should have exploded," he said.

"Dasha [Daria], in principle, is not the kind of person who could kill anyone," added Rylov.

"Daria said that she was set up, and I completely agree: No one expected this. As far as I know, it was necessary to hand over this figurine, in which there was something … We talked about this at least twice. Daria would not be able to do this," he told The Insider.

The Kremlin has said Ukraine may be behind the murder of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, describing the killing as a "terrorist attack."

Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, was killed in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg on Sunday. The incident left 32 people injured, state media reported.

"Judging by the NAC [National Anti-Terrorism Committee] statement, there is evidence that the Ukrainian special services may be involved in the planning of this terrorist attack," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call with reporters Monday.

No evidence has yet been presented about who carried out the cafe attack, but Russia’s state media RIA Novosti carried a statement Monday from the NAC saying that the explosion involved agents of the Ukrainian special services and associates of Navalny-founded Anti-Corruption Foundation. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also pointed the finger at Ukraine, without citing evidence.

Alexey Navalny's longtime associate rejected accusations that the jailed opposition leader's Anti-Corruption Foundation was involved with the explosion.

Ukraine has said little about the attack, beyond blaming in-fighting in Russia. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the President’s office, wrote on Twitter: "Spiders are eating each other in a jar. Question of when domestic terrorism would become an instrument of internal political fight was a matter of time."

Peskov wished a speedy recovery to those injured in the attack and sent condolences to Tatarsky's family and friends.

Peskov said: "[This is] the regime that is behind the murder of Daria Dugina. This is the regime that is quite possibly behind the assassination of Fomin and the terrorist attack in St. Petersburg," Peskov said. "That is why the special military operation is being carried out." Moscow has repeatedly called its invasion of Ukraine a "special military operation."

Ukraine has denied allegations of involvement in the murder of Dugina, the daughter of influential ultra-nationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin. She was killed in August by a bomb attached to the car she was driving near Moscow. Dugina knew Tatarsky and shared some of his outspoken, nationalistic views about the conflict. They moved in the same circles, and they had been photographed multiple times together.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö will travel to Brussels on Tuesday to attend an accession ceremony at NATO headquarters, officially marking the start of the country's membership of the military alliance.

"Finland will deposit its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the US State Department in Brussels on Tuesday, 4 April, before the start of the meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs. The deposit will be made by Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto," the presidency said in a statement Monday.

A flag-raising ceremony marking Finland's accession to NATO will follow.

Niinistö and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will hold a bilateral meeting followed by a press conference and both are expected to deliver remarks at the ceremony. 

Finland submitted a joint application for NATO membership alongside Sweden shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

While Finland's membership has been ratified by all member states, Sweden's bid has been stalled due to opposition from Hungary and Turkey. 

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck arrived in Kyiv on Monday, accompanied by a business delegation, to discuss rebuilding Ukraine from the war with Russia.

"The purpose of this trip is to give Ukraine a clear sign that we believe that it will be victorious, that it will be rebuilt, that there is an interest from Europe not only to support in times of need, but also that Ukraine will be an economically strong partner in the future," Habeck told journalists upon arrival in Kyiv.

This is his first visit to Kyiv since the beginning of Russia's war in Ukraine over a year ago.