Blast that killed Ukraine PoWs was Kremlin operation, Kyiv claims
Officials cite satellite data and phone intercepts and say Wagner Group mercenaries carried out atrocity
The Ukrainian prisoners of war killed last week in an explosion at their barracks were the victims of a Kremlin special operation plotted in advance and approved at the highest levels, senior government officials in Kyiv have claimed.
Citing intelligence, satellite data and phone intercepts, the officials said the inmates were killed in a callous and premeditated war crime. They suggested it was carried out by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, working closely with Vladimir Putin's FSB spy agency.
Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said Russia has no reason to hold up the return of a gas turbine for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. The turbine works," he said. It has been stranded in Germany after servicing in Canada, in a standoff that has led to gas flows to Europe plunging to 20% of capacity.
The first shipment of more than 26,000 tons of Ukrainian food was cleared to proceed towards its final destination in Lebanon, the UN said. The Razoni left Odesa on Monday under a Black Sea deal agreed by Kyiv and Moscow and brokered by the UN. So far the deal appears to be holding.
More than 10m border crossings in and out of Ukraine have taken place since Russia's invasion on 24 February. Nearly 6.2 million refugees are now living across Europe, the UNHCR said, with the biggest number, 1.25 million, based in neighbouring Poland.
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