Day 404 of the Invasion of Ukraine: Pro-Kremlin Blogger was Killed in an Explosion in St. Petersburg

Ukraine | April 3, 2023, Monday // 07:46|  views

Day 404 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

  • Prigozhin announced the capture of Bakhmut
  • Russia blamed Ukraine and implicated Navalny's fund in Tatarsky's murder
  • Russia: Nuclear weapons in Belarus will be located on the border with NATO countries
  • Pro-Kremlin blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in an explosion in a cafe in St. Petersburg
  • Zelensky: The situation in Bakhmut remains heated
  • Car explosion in Melitopol. The car of the collaborator Maxim Zubarev was blown into the air
  • Oleksiy Danilov published a 12-step plan for the deoccupation of Crimea


Prigozhin announced the capture of Bakhmut

A Russian flag has been raised above Bakhmut's administration, said the founder of the private military company "Wagner" Yevgeny Prigozhin, TASS reported.

"It is now April 2, precisely at 11:00 p.m. Behind me is the building of the city administration [of Bakhmut]. This is the Russian flag - [for Vladlen Tatarsky, who died on Sunday in a bomb attack in St. Petersburg]. On this flag it says 'We will remember you well'. Legally we took Bakhmut," said Prigozhin, whose words were quoted on the channel of his press service in Telegram.

The owner of "Wagner" adds that the commanders of the units of the Russian troops, which have taken over the city administration and the entire central district, "will carry and raise flags."

According to Prigozhin, there are still Ukrainian troops in the western districts of Bakhmut.

Russia blamed Ukraine and implicated Navalny's fund in Tatarsky's murder

 

The Russian National Anti-Terrorist Committee accused the Ukrainian special services of killing the military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a cafe in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported.

 

At the same time, less than 24 hours after yesterday's murder, the NAC announced that Kyiv's services had acted by attracting "an agency from the ranks of people cooperating with the so-called Navalny's Anti-Corruption Fund".

 

It refers to ACF, founded by the Kremlin's most prominent critic, Alexei Navalny, who has been in prison for two years on old charges, on the basis of which his suspended sentence was replaced by an effective one after his return from Germany in early 2021, where he was being treated for nerve agent poisoning.

 

Minutes after the announced detention of Daria Trepova as a suspect in the attack, the NAC claimed that she was an "active supporter" of the ACF. Trepova is the person who was wanted after recordings of the event and according to eyewitnesses show her handing over a statuette to 40-year-old Maxim Fomin (Tatarsky's birth name) minutes before the explosion.

 

The fund is recognized as an "extremist organization" in Russia and banned.

 

Earlier, information appeared on the Mash channel, which is close to the Russian services, that Trepova was talking about her new job to "Ukrainian journalists" and that tasks were coming from Ukraine for which she received "money transfers". Among them was the task of "delivering a sculpture to Vladlen Tatarski at his lecture on April 2."

 

Ukraine has already denied having anything to do with the attack, and in the presidential administration in Kyiv, internal strife has ripened. Director of the AFC Ivan Zhdanov later wrote: "To deny that we did it is idiocy. Naturally, we do not deal with such stuff... Everything that is happening speaks to the fact that in reality [FSB counterintelligence agents] themselves have removed this propagandist."

 

Russia: Nuclear weapons in Belarus will be located on the border with NATO countries

Russia will move its tactical nuclear weapons along Belarus' border with NATO countries. This was announced by the Russian ambassador in Minsk.

Belarus borders Lithuania and Latvia to the north, and Poland to the west.

The Russian president announced the decision to move tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus on March 26. It is not yet clear when the move will begin.

Earlier, Putin announced that the warehouses should be built by July 1.

On Friday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that if necessary, he would allow intercontinental nuclear missiles to be deployed on its territory.

Pro-Kremlin blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in an explosion in a cafe in St. Petersburg

In St. Petersburg, an explosion was heard in the "Street Bar" cafe, the BBC reported. A video of the explosion shot from outside, as well as footage of the aftermath of the blast, is circulating on Telegram channels.

Pro-Kremlin blogger Vladlen Tatarsky died, 16 others were injured, according to TASS, citing emergency services. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has confirmed the information.

"On April 2, 2023, at 6:13 p.m., the police of the Vasileostrovsky district received information that an explosion had occurred in a cafe of the University building 25. As a result of the incident, one person died: military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky. 16 people were injured, they are being examined by medical workers," reported the press center of the Russian Ministry of the Interior.

The pro-Russian journalist and propagandist Maxim Yurevich Fomin is known to the audience as Vladlen Tatarsky - host of the "Day Vladlen" and "Night Vladlen" channels.

"The police and emergency services of St. Petersburg are working on the spot, the causes and circumstances of the accident are being established," the ministry said.

Zelensky: The situation in Bakhmut remains heated

 

The situation in Bakhmut remains "heated", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in response to Moscow's claims that it had captured the eastern city. Russia also announced that it was beginning to deploy tactical nuclear weapons near NATO's eastern flank.

 

From a legal point of view, Bakhmut has been captured, said the leader of the Russian private army Yevgeny Prigozhin, adding that a Russian flag has been raised on the city's administration building.

 

Prigozhin also said that Ukrainian forces are concentrated in the western parts of the settlement. However, the Ukrainian General Staff stressed that the Ukrainian army held positions and managed to repulse more than 20 attacks.

 

The situation on the front remains difficult, with the battles in Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka being particularly fierce, noted President Volodymyr Zelensky. The head of state will talk with German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who is visiting Kyiv to discuss cooperation in the energy sector. Meanwhile, Russia has announced that it will move its tactical nuclear weapons near the western borders of Belarus.

 

The weapons "will be moved to the western border of our union state, which will increase the possibilities of ensuring security," said Russian ambassador to Minsk Boris Gryzlov, adding that this would be done, quote, "despite the noise in Europe and the United States.”

Car explosion in Melitopol. The car of the collaborator Maxim Zubarev was blown into the air

The car of the Russian collaborator Maxim Zubarev was blown up on Monday morning on Bogdan Khmelnytsky Boulevard in the occupied Melitopol, announced the pre-war mayor of the city, Ivan Fyodorov. Zubarev is the head of the occupation authorities in the town of Akimov in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The head of the Melitopol occupation authority, Andrey Siguta, also announced the attempt. He claimed that the attack was carried out by representatives of Ukraine. "Thus, Kyiv does not stop attempts to intimidate the civilian population," Siguta wrote on Telegram. The rescue services in Melitopol reported that Zubarev was injured in the explosion, and doctors described his condition as serious.

In November of this year, Zubarev was able to personally refute reports on social networks that he had been killed. "I hasten to reassure everyone and inform that everything is fine with me. The Ukrainian mass media once again published fake news about my death." The denial was in response to reports that Ukrainian partisans had liquidated him.

On March 27, there was an attempt on the head of the city department of the Mariupol occupation police, Mikhail Moskvin, but he escaped with minor injuries after his car was blown up while he was meters away.

 

Oleksiy Danilov published a 12-step plan for the deoccupation of Crimea

The Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, published the 12-step program for the deoccupation of Crimea, Radio Free Europe reported. The document provides for the return of the peninsula annexed by Russia under the jurisdiction of Kyiv.

In particular, the program envisages the complete dismantling of the Crimean bridge, the emigration of Russian citizens who arrived there after 2014 and the renaming of Sevastopol to "Object No. 6".

According to Danilov, the new name of Sevastopol is necessary because the city plays "a certain role in Russian ideology, mythmaking and the rewriting of history." "Later, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will decide on the new name of the city. It will probably be Akhtiar," noted Danilov. This is the name Sevastopol bore in 1783-1784 and from 1797 to 1826.

Mikhail Razvozhaev, the illegal Russian governor of the annexed Sevastopol, in response to Danilov's report on the "12 steps to the deoccupation of Crimea", said that the statements of Ukrainian politicians cannot be taken seriously.

"The news from Ukrainian politicians is more like an entry in the medical record from ward number six. The statements and comments of sick people cannot be taken seriously. They need to be treated, which our military is currently doing," said Razvozzhaev.

Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014. In September 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions into Ukraine.

Kyiv and Western countries have previously announced that they will not recognize the annexation under any circumstances. Ukraine has said it will fight for the return of all territories occupied by Russia by force of arms.

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Tags: Ukraine, Russia, Bakhmut

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