Ukraine strikes Russia’s military headquarters in Luhansk, several die: 5 points

With the war between Ukraine and Russia continuing for over ten months, a senior official in eastern Ukraine on Sunday said that the Ukrainian forces attacked Russia’s private Wagner military group headquarters – killing several people, reported news agency Reuters. Reportedly, photos posted on Telegram channels showed a building largely reduced to rubble.

1. A senior official in eastern Ukraine said that the Ukrainian forces attacked a hotel where members of Russia’s private Wagner military group were based on Saturday. The governor of the Russian-occupied Luhansk region told a Ukrainian television channel that the strike killed several Russians, reported Reuters.

2. While the governor did not mention the number of casualties, he said, “A huge number of those who were there died. I am sure that at least 50 percent of those who managed to survive will die before they get medical care,” he was quoted as saying in the report that cited an interview by the Ukrainian media.

3. Russia’s Wagner group is a private military contractor with close ties to the Kremlin. Wagner’s forces are known to be fighting in parts of Ukraine and have also been deployed in several African countries.

4. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s top security officials have ordered punitive measures against seven senior clerics – as a part of a crackdown on a branch of the Orthodox Church with longstanding ties to Moscow, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday. The clerics are known to have been sympathetic to Russia’s portrayal of its 10-month-old invasion of Ukraine.

5. An international team of legal advisers has been reportedly working with local prosecutors in Ukraine’s recaptured city of Kherson as they began gathering evidence of alleged sexual crimes by the Russian forces.