August 24, 2023 Russia-Ukraine, Prigozhin news

The Ukrainian military says that at least 30 Russians were killed in a seaborne raid by Ukrainian special forces against facilities on the western Crimean coast in the early hours of Thursday.

Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine's Defense Intelligence, told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne Crimea that as a result of a special operation of Defense Intelligence and Ukrainian Navy near the village of Mayak in Crimea, four speedboats were damaged and at least 30 Russians were killed.

In an interview Wednesday, the head of Ukrainian Defense Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said that "now we have the ability to hit any part of the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea — we can reach the enemy absolutely anywhere."

Budanov told Radio Liberty that "there are many options for de-occupying Crimea, but it is impossible without military action."

The attack appears to be one of the Ukrainian armed forces' most complex and ambitious operations to date against Russian military facilities on the Crimean Peninsula.

While there has been no word from Russian-appointed authorities in Crimea on the latest attack, Russian military bloggers have raised questions about the inability of coastal defenses to detect and repel such operations.

The prominent Telegram channel Rybar noted that "during the night, two to four speedboats landed in the Olenivka area on Cape Tarkhankut, conducted demonstrative firing of grenade launchers on camera and departed."

Rybar continued: "This is the second incident in the area of the cape in the last few days. Only recently (Ukrainian forces) conducted a combined attack, which resulted in the destruction of a S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system, and this time they have landed on the shore."

Referring to other unofficial claims on Russian outlets that up to 20 Ukrainian troops had been killed, Rybar added that "instead of rosy reports, it would be more expedient to do everything possible to suppress such activity. Especially in places where there is a large concentration of civilians."

There is a campsite close to where the Ukrainians are reported to have come ashore.

The fuselage of the plane believed to be carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin was largely intact when the aircraft crashed into the ground on Wednesday, according to new imagery shared exclusively with CNN.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image taken by Umbra Lab, Inc., showed that crash site is in the shape of an oblong oval – containing mostly the fuselage -- and is confined to a specific area. 

That conclusion is supported by video geolocated and authenticated by CNN that shows the plane's fuselage and engines, with a wing apparently missing, falling out of the sky. 

Although the majority of the debris appears at the fuselage-shaped site at the edge of a forest clearing, smaller chunks of the plane did fall elsewhere. Just over a mile – or nearly two kilometers -- southeast of the main debris site, CNN geolocated images and video that showed part of the plane's tail sitting in a clearing, near a row of homes. 

What is SAR imagery: SAR imagery is unlike normal satellite imagery. It is created by transmitting radar beams that are able to pass through clouds. The beams bounce off objects on the ground and echo back to the satellite; what they bounce off of is then mapped out by the satellite and the SAR image is created.  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says there were no casualties reported among special forces that carried out a raid against Russian facilities in Crimea early Thursday morning.

The attack appears to be one of the Ukrainian armed forces' most complex and ambitious operations to date against Russian military facilities on the Crimean Peninsula.

Zelensky added that he would receive a report on the assault later.

The European Union has said it is “hard to verify” reports that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed to have been killed in a plane crash on Wednesday evening.

“We have seen the report about the plane crash which allegedly killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner group, alongside members of his entourage and crew members,” said Peter Stano, the bloc’s lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, at a press briefing on Thursday.

“But again, like so many other things in Russia, this is very hard to verify for us, and therefore not for us to comment,” Stano added.

Stano said the “negative actions” of Prigozhin and the Wagner group are widely known, pointing towards its involvement in the Ukraine war and its operations in African countries.

“Everywhere they [the Wagner group] have been present, were present or are present they left a trail of violation of human rights, [and] international humanitarian law. There is a lot of unaccountability, there are unclear rules under which they operate,” Stano said.

The group’s future operations will not only be affected by the “alleged death of Prigozhin” but also by “events in June” when the group decided to march on Moscow in a short-lived rebellion, he added.

Stano said that although the EU hopes that the “negative impact” of Wagner’s operations will cease, the bloc is mindful that the mercenary group is “not linked only to the name of its leader.”

He said that the group’s affiliation with the Kremlin is one of several “complex issues,” while also emphasizing that it is not for the EU to “speculate whether the alleged killing or death of Prigozhin in a plane crash will have any specific consequences on Wagner's activities.”

Nearly 24 hours after the crash of an aircraft that Russian authorities say was carrying Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and two of his top lieutenants, the Kremlin has said nothing about the incident.

No other senior Russian official has commented either.

President Vladimir Putin was at an event in Kursk on Wednesday when news emerged of the crash, but offered no comment there nor on his return to Moscow. 

There was no conference call with Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov on Thursday for media. The last call held by Peskov was on August 4.

Putin met with Prigozhin and Wagner commanders several days after their short-lived mutiny in Russia at the end of June, despite previously describing the event as an act of treason.

Prigozhin was subsequently able to move freely and even appeared on the sidelines of the Africa summit organized by the Kremlin in St Petersburg last month. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had nothing to do with the plane crash that is presumed to have killed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Wednesday, Ukrainian state media reported.

Speaking at a news conference alongside Portugal President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is visiting Kyiv, Zelensky said: "We have nothing to do with this situation. That's for sure. But I think everyone realizes who has."

Zelensky did not elaborate further.

It's 3 p.m. in the Russian city of Tver, where forensic scientists are working to confirm the news that's gripped Russia and beyond: Was Yevgeny Prigozhin on board the plane that crashed in Russia on Wednesday, killing everyone on board?

Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, was listed as a passenger on the manifest of the private Embraer jet that went down. So too was Dmitriy Utkin, a key Wagner figure, and Valeriy Chekalov, a senior aide to Prigozhin.

Ten people in total were on board the aircraft, all of whom were killed when it went down en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Eight bodies have since been found, according to Russian officials and state media. Russian authorities have said efforts will be made to confirm the identity of the victims at the Tver morgue. 

Here's what else you need to know about the crash

Meanwhile, in the war with Ukraine,

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska honored the memory of those killed in the war with Russia to mark the country's Independence Day.

The couple laid flowers at the Wall of Remembrance near St. Michael Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv and observed a moment of silence in memory of the fallen heroes.

Zelensky also honored the memory of activists killed during street protests that led to the downfall of the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

The president and first lady also attended a service at St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.

We're learning more about the Ukrainian raid in the Crimean village of Mayak, and it appears it was part of one of Ukrainian forces' most complex and ambitious operations to date against Russian military facilities on the Crimean Peninsula.

The operation involved Ukrainian special forces landing on the western shore of Crimea, near the settlements of Olenivka and Mayak, to attack Russian units, destroy Kremlin materiel and raise the Ukrainian flag.

Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Directorate said it carried out the attack in a joint operation with the Ukrainian Navy. The directorate released several videos purporting to show Ukrainian inflatables close to the Crimean coast in the darkness.

There's been no word from the Russian-appointed authorities in Crimea on the attacks.

The area targeted by Kyiv contains extensive Russian air defenses and missile sites, including advanced systems. Mayak is said to be home to a Russian radio engineering regiment and sophisticated radar.

It is the second time in two days that Ukrainian forces have targeted Russian weaponry in the area. Kyiv said Wednesday its forces had destroyed an S-400 missile defense battery in the area.

Reports from social media: Unofficial Russian social media accounts have spoken of firing near a campsite at Cape Tarkhankut -- the westernmost point in Crimea -- before dawn on Thursday. One channel said the first shooting broke out shortly before 4 a.m.

A prominent Russian military blog, Wargonzo, reported that, "according to some sources, a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group landed in the area of Cape Tarkhankut, shelled the camping on the seashore and fled in the direction of Odesa."

A Telegram channel associated with a military unit of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic also reported the clashes. It said that four Ukrainian boats were destroyed near Cape Tarkhankut and 15 to 20 people were killed.