When Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in an August 2023 plane crash, many analysts said his death could mark the end of the Wagner Group, the private military company he co-founded that provided thousands of Russian mercenaries for Moscow’s initiatives and other interests abroad.

But more than a year later, the picture of Russian mercenary activities has only grown more complicated, researchers say.

Before Prigozhin’s death, Wagner’s mercenaries had fought in conflicts around the world –– from Ukraine to the Middle East and Africa –– and helped Russia to spread its influence far beyond its borders.

Along the way, Wagner faced allegations of murdering African civilians and committing war crimes.

Then, in June 2023, Prigozhin launched an unexpected insurrection against Russian authorities over their handling of the war in Ukraine. His mercenaries captured the city of Rostov-on-Don and marched on toward Moscow. Prigozhin stood down only after the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, mediated a deal.

After such brazen insubordination, many were unsurprised when Prigozhin died in a plane crash less than two months later. But predictions that the Wagner Group’s activities would die with him have proven to be untrue.

Wagner Group fighters are still active in the Central African Republic and Mali. In other countries like Niger, it has been replaced by Africa Corps, a successor organization subordinate to Russia’s defense ministry. In other cases, different Russian militarized structures have picked up the Wagner name and symbols.

What is clear to analysts is that Russian mercenaries are not going away. If anything, the future of Russian private military companies will be “more sustainable and less spectacular” according to Jack Margolin, an independent researcher who recently published a book on the Wagner Group.

Since Prigozhin’s death, Russia has “really effectively created infrastructure and incentive structures in order to draw in former [Wagner] fighters and build this system of semi-formal forces,” he told VOA.

Ties with the Russian state

The Wagner Group’s activities around the world have always been intertwined with Russian foreign policy, but the exact nature of that connection is a subject of debate among experts.

Margolin notes that Wagner co-founder Dmitry Utkin –– who also died in the August 2023 plane crash –– served in the special forces of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, commonly called the GRU. Around 2014, he and Prigozhin founded the Wagner Group, which was initially small.

That same year, Wagner took part in the illegal Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Later, the mercenaries were dispatched to the pseudo-state Russia propped up in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.

During this period, there is ample evidence that Wagner actively cooperated with the Russian defense ministry –– in part because Ukraine intercepted Wagner conversations with Russian officers.

But when Wagner operations moved beyond Ukraine, the picture grew more complicated. Experts differ on how to interpret it.

Maria Kucherenko leads Russian studies at the Ukraine-based Come Back Alive Initiatives Center. She believes that Wagner was created by Russian military intelligence and remains under its control.

For this reason, she views the post-Prigozhin changes in the mercenary corps as largely superficial.

“Only the surnames of the GRU generals in charge have changed,” she said.

Other analysts paint a more complex picture of Wagner’s ties with the Russian state. Margolin sees a greater degree of freedom in Wagner’s past activities.

“They acted in the GRU’s interest. They coordinated with the GRU. All of Wagner’s operations abroad were supported by logistics that were owned by the Ministry of Defense,” he said. “But at the same time, they were still able to determine in this local context exactly what they wanted to do.”

John Lechner, a researcher who will publish a book on Wagner in March, believes the mercenary corps’ relationship with the Russian state heavily depended on the country where it was operating.

In Ukraine and Syria, where the mercenaries backed the government of Bashar al-Assad, Wagner actively collaborated with the Russia’s defense ministry. But in sub-Saharan Africa, where the Russian state had a very limited presence, Wagner was able to decide what Russia’s national interests were, Lecher said in an interview.

Wagner wasn’t “just a shadowy arm of the Kremlin pursuing the Kremlin’s interests; they were creating them,” he said.

What next?

Since Prighzoin’s death, Wagner has undergone significant changes –– although analysts disagree about how fundamental they are.

Russian journalist Ilya Barabanov, who coauthored a Russian-language history of Wagner, believes that the old private military company essentially no longer exists.

“Over the last year and a half, we’ve seen Prigozhin’s empire being broken apart,” he told VOA. “Some [parts] are going to the Ministry of Defense. Some are going to the Russian National Guard. Some are going to Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces.”

The original Wagner, meanwhile, continues to operate only in the Central African Republic, Mali, and Belarus.

Despite these changes, the dissolution of Wagner is going more slowly than expected because the Kremlin is too busy waging war in Ukraine, Barabanov added.

Margolin emphasizes that Russia’s successor mercenary structures won’t function the same way Wagner did.

The Wagner Group stood out for its risk appetite and relative independence from the Russian government. In the Central African Republic, it was Wagner that decided to transition from a strategy of defending the capital of Bangui and the country’s political elite to a more aggressive battle with insurgents, he notes. Wagner also decided with whom it would do business.

In contrast, Africa Corps and other successor companies are much more risk-averse and more actively coordinate their activities with Russian military intelligence, Margolin said.

Lechner notes that efforts to replace Wagner have been more successful in some places than others.

Starting in 2019, Wagner mercenaries fought in Libya on the side of rebel general Khalifa Haftar. But in October 2020, he signed a ceasefire with the United Nations-backed Libyan government. Because active fighting had stopped, Russia had little trouble replacing Wagner there with Africa Corps, Lechner said.

In Mali, Wagner mercenaries are engaged in pitched battles with Tuareg separatists and Islamist fighters in the country’s north. In late July, dozens of Russian fighters were killed in an ambush near the town of Tinzaouaten.

Lechner suggests that in the future there will be multiple “mini-Prigozhins” in charge of Russian military companies, but not one individual with “all of the political clout and business interests that Prigozhin had come to represent.”

Both Margolin and Lechner agree that, while Wagner is no longer officially fighting in Ukraine, its influence on that conflict has been significant.

Journalists have often pointed out Wagner’s usage of so-called “meat storms,” when the company was willing to sacrifice waves of men to wear down Ukrainian forces. The tactic was particularly noticeable during the 2022-23 battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which Russia eventually razed and captured.

But Wagner also gained military experience in the Middle East and Africa that the official Russian military is now applying in Ukraine: for example, devolving command authority to lower echelons and small unit tactics, Margolin said.

“Wagner has in many ways achieved the thing that Prigozhin said was necessary during the siege of Bakhmut, which was that the Russian armed forces needed to become more like Wagner to be more effective,” he told VOA.

Lechner refers to it as the “Wagnerization of the Russian military.”

Resisting Russian mercenaries abroad

Regardless of exactly what structures succeed Wagner, Russian mercenary activities will likely continue to worry Western governments. Experts say it will be difficult to push back against their influence abroad.

Ukrainian researcher Kucherenko believes that the U.S., European countries, Ukraine, and other partners must join forces to counteract Russian mercenaries. But she suggests they must look higher in the command structure.

“We need to evaluate them as representatives of the GRU itself,” she said.

She suggests directing particular attention to Yunus-bek Yevkurov, Russia’s deputy defense minister, and Major General Andrei Averyanov, the reported former commander of a secretive military intelligence unit that has conducted assassinations abroad. Both men now are reputed to play key roles in Africa Corps.

Margolin suggests that, among other efforts, the U.S. should focus on export controls to limit the mercenaries’ access to military technologies, especially drone technologies, which played a key role in Wagner’s activities in Ukraine.

He also suggests that Western governments should be cautious about propping up African regimes with poor human rights records and entrenched corruption, despite any fears that Russia will rush in if they do not.

In fact, engaging with such governments feeds popular anger against the West, which in turn provides “fertile ground for organizations like Wagner to take root,” Margolin said.

Lechner notes that Wagner expanded its presence in Africa as Western powers exited the continent.

For example, France withdrew its forces from the Central African Republic in 2016 amid a civil war in the country. Wagner stepped in to provide security for the country’s leadership.

“I don’t think there is any interest for the United States to put troops on the ground in Africa to be perfectly honest,” Lechner said. Short of that, he said, “I’m not exactly sure what [Western powers] can offer.”

Russian mercenaries have few similar competitors in the region. Though China is active in Africa, its activities are mainly focused on large economic investments. Even Wagner’s business activities have mostly not placed it in conflict with China.

Russian journalist Barabanov suggests there is one more factor that will play a key role in determining the future of Russian mercenaries: Russia’s war against Ukraine.

If that conflict ends, then “the Russian government will have a huge human resource of veterans who fought in this war,” he said, “and they can probably be used in other, far-off conflicts.”
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Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday threatened to strike “decision-making centers in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, with Russia’s new Oreshnik hypersonic cruise missiles, after pounding Ukrainian energy infrastructure and cutting off power to more than one million people across the country.

“We do not rule out the use of Oreshnik against the military, military-industrial or decision-making centers, including in Kyiv,” Putin told a news conference in the Kasakh capital, Astana.

He said he launched Thursday’s drone and missile attack against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with U.S. medium-range ATACMS missiles.

The attack marked Russia’s second big attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure this month. Officials said it was the 11th major strike on Ukraine’s energy system since March.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of a “despicable escalation,” saying it had used cruise missiles with cluster munitions.

The attack marks Russia’s second big attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure this month. Officials said it was the 11th major strike on Ukraine’s energy system since March.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow launched the attack in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with U.S. medium-range ATACMS missiles. Putin also said Russia’s future targets could include “decision-making centers” in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

Ukraine called on the international community to respond to Putin’s threats to target government centers in Kyiv.

“We expect those countries that have urged everyone to avert the expansion of the war to react to the statements voiced by Putin today,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said.

In addition to the more than 1 million people who lost power in the aftermath of the strikes, millions more had their existing schedule of rolling power cuts escalated.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia used 91 missiles and 97 drones in the assault. The air force said 12 of those hit their targets, the majority of which were energy and fuel facilities. All missiles or drones aimed at Kyiv were brought down, officials said.

“The enemy is using a large number of missiles and drones. Their massive use in certain areas often exceeds the number of means of [air defense] cover,” the air force said in a statement.

In the Lviv region, 523,000 subscribers lost electricity, regional head Maksym Kozytsky said on social media. The region, in the western part of the country, borders Poland.

Directly north of the Lviv region, 215,000 customers lost power in the region of Volyn, and 280,000 lost power in the neighboring Rivne region, their governors said.

“Energy infrastructure is once again targeted by the enemy’s massive strike,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook.

Ukrenergo, the national electrical grid operator, introduced emergency power cuts amid the attack, Galushchenko said.

Officials told Reuters that several nuclear power units were disconnected from the network during the attacks.

Private power company DTEK said the power cuts impacted Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.

Some regional officials said water service was also affected by the airstrikes.

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said in a Telegram post that Russia had stockpiled missiles to strike Ukrainian infrastructure and wage war against civilians during the cold season, The Associated Press reported.

The three-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is looming, and Russian ground forces are advancing at their fastest pace in two years.

On Thursday, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry urged its partners to accelerate the delivery of military aid, saying that was more important than drafting more men.

“We are now in the situation when we need more equipment to arm all the people that have already been mobilized, and we think the first priority is to send quicker, faster military aid,” Tykhyi, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, told reporters in Kyiv.

The statement comes one day after a senior U.S. official said Wednesday that Ukraine should consider lowering the age of military service for its soldiers from 25 years old to 18 in order to replace those lost on the battlefield.

On Thursday, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Ukraine is ready to host a second global summit aimed at ending Russia’s invasion in the “nearest future,” according to local media.

Kyiv hosted its first “peace summit” in June in Switzerland. Russia was not invited.

Speaking in Kazakhstan on Thursday, Putin said there were no preconditions to start talks with Ukraine on a possible peace deal, but that terms he set out in June for the deal remained the same.

In June, Putin said Russia would end the war only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over four entire Ukrainian provinces claimed by Moscow. Kyiv rejected those demands as amounting to surrender.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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N’DJAMENA, chad — Chad’s government said Thursday that it had ended its defense cooperation pact with France, a move that could see French troops leave the Central African country. 

In a statement, Chad’s foreign ministry said the country, a key Western ally in the fight against Islamic militants in the region, wanted to fully assert its sovereignty after more than six decades of independence.  

It said the decision to end the defense cooperation agreement revised in 2019 would enable it to redefine its strategic partnerships.  

Chad has cooperated closely with Western nations’ military forces in the past, but it has moved closer to Russia in recent years.  

The decision is another nail in the coffin of France’s historic and colonial role in West and Central Africa after being forced to pull its troops out of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso following military coups.  

The military juntas have since turned to Russia, which has mercenaries deployed across the Sahel region – a band of countries stretching from Africa’s northwest to northeast coasts – and has been fostering closer ties with Chad’s President Mahamat Deby. 

“In accordance with the terms of the accord, Chad will respect the modalities of the termination, including the necessary deadlines, and will collaborate with French authorities to ensure a harmonious transition,” the statement said. 

The French foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment. 

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, on Thursday visited Chad’s border with Sudan.  

There were no indications that Paris had been given advance notice of the decision, although a French envoy to President Emmanuel Macron this week handed in a report with proposals on how France could reduce its military presence in Chad, Gabon and Ivory Coast, where it has deployed thousands of troops for decades. 

France has around 1,000 troops as well as warplanes stationed in Chad. 

In a further blow to France, Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said in an interview with French state TV on Thursday that it was inappropriate for French troops to maintain a presence in his country.  

He stopped short of saying if or when French troops would be asked to leave, but he said Paris would be the first to know. Around 350 French troops are based in Senegal. 

The statement by Chad’s foreign ministry said the decision to end the nation’s defense partnership with France should in no way undermine the friendly relations between the two countries.  

Earlier this year, Chad ordered a small contingent of U.S. special operations to leave the country. In September, the U.S. said it was in talks for them to return.  

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment on whether it has a presence in Chad. 
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GABORONE, BOTSWANA — Botswana has been added as a second center, in addition to Belgium, to verify the origin of rough diamonds meant for export to the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries, the nation’s presidency announced Thursday.

African producers had complained that making Belgium the sole verification center led to disruptions in the global diamond supply chain, as the G7 moved to stop the flow of gems mined in Russia.

A statement by the office of the president said Botswana was granted permission to set up a verification center following “intensive” discussions with the G7 Diamond Technical Team.

The announcement comes as President Duma Boko and Minister of Minerals Bogolo Kenewendo returned Thursday from a diamond conference in Brussels.

Kenewendo told state television it is logical to grant Botswana, the world’s second-largest producer of diamonds, the right to certify rough stones.

She said that Botswana has a track record in verification and certification, together with other countries under the Kimberley Process.

The Kimberley Process is a trade regime that certifies rough diamond exports entering the global market, but it has been criticized for failing to do enough to keep out diamonds from conflict zones.

Diamond-producing countries such as Angola and Namibia should be recognized verifiers because they have prepared through the Kimberley Process, Kenewendo said.

To sanction Russian diamonds, the G7, at the start of the year, proposed that all stones destined for export to their member countries be routed through Antwerp, Belgium, to verify their origin.

African producers, led by Botswana, protested, saying the move caused disruptions to the global supply chain due to delays and added costs.

Belgian-based diamond industry researcher Hans Merket said the addition of Botswana as a verification center will allow more flexibility.

“Botswana appears to be something of a test case with the G7 Diamond Technical Team already explicitly referencing Namibia and Angola as potential future certification nodes,” Merket said.

“By diversifying the certification points, this approach could establish a more balanced and inclusive framework for the G7 certification scheme aligning more closely with the global dynamics of the global supply chain,” he said.

“Moreover, it can also help pave the way for stricter controls and higher ethical standards in the diamond sector, particularly as the Kimberley Process certification scheme faces increasing criticism for its declining credibility and leniency,” Merket said.

Jaff Bamenjo, coordinator of the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition, said more African diamond producers should be added as verification centers because the addition of only Botswana will not resolve supply chain disruptions.

“African diamond producing countries are suffering from a problem they did not create,” Bamenjo said.

Botswana’s export certification center is expected to be operational early next year.
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stockholm — One of two Baltic subsea cables that were damaged earlier this month in a suspected sabotage is back online, a spokesman for operator company Arelion said.

The cable connecting Sweden and Lithuania was repaired as of Thursday and traffic had resumed at full capacity, spokesman Martin Sjogren said.

Two subsea cables, the other linking Finland and Germany, were damaged in less than 24 hours on November 17-18, prompting German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to say he assumed it was sabotage.

Undersea cables transmit nearly all the world’s internet data traffic and are considered critical infrastructure because they are the communication backbone between countries.

Investigators have zeroed in on Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the country sent a formal request to China seeking cooperation to help clarify what happened when the undersea cables were damaged in the Baltic Sea.

“We are cooperating with Swedish police in their investigation of our damaged cable,” Sjogren said.

“It’s very difficult to secure the entire subsea infrastructure but the international cooperation between authorities, military and companies is working very well,” he said.

Arelion, once part of telecom company Telia, owns 75,000 kilometers of fiber network.

Finland’s Cinia, which owns the other cable, has also started repair work and estimated completion by the end of this month.
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TBILISI, GEORGIA — Georgia’s ruling party said on Thursday that the country would suspend talks on European Union accession until 2028, while also refusing budgetary grants from Brussels, effectively halting its application to join the bloc, a long-standing national goal.

In response, thousands of pro-EU protesters blocked streets in the capital, while the country’s figurehead president accused the government of declaring war on its own people with the move.

The Georgian Dream governing bloc accused the EU of “a cascade of insults,” saying in a statement it was using the prospect of accession talks to blackmail the country and to “organize a revolution in the country.”

As a result, it said, “We have decided not to put the issue of opening negotiations with the European Union on the agenda until the end of 2028. Also, we refuse any budgetary grant from the European Union until the end of 2028.”

The South Caucasus country of 3.7 million has the aim of EU accession written into its constitution and has traditionally been among the most pro-Western of the Soviet Union’s successor states.

Georgia’s relations with Brussels have deteriorated sharply in recent months amid EU allegations of authoritarianism and pro-Russian tendencies. The EU had already said that Georgia’s application is frozen.

Georgian Dream says that it is not pro-Russian and that it is committed to democracy and integration with the West.

It says it wants to join the EU eventually but has repeatedly engaged in diplomatic feuds with Brussels in recent years while deepening ties with neighboring Russia.

There was no immediate formal comment from the EU on Georgian Dream’s statement. But an EU official said the impact of Thursday’s move was huge, adding that the government was doing what the EU had feared and had hoped it would not.

Opinion polls show that around 80% of Georgians support EU membership, and the bloc’s flag flies alongside the national flag outside virtually all government buildings in the country.

Georgia’s pro-Western opposition reacted to Georgian Dream’s announcement with fury, while several thousand protesters massed outside parliament and the ruling party’s headquarters, blocking roads. Local media reported that protests erupted in several provincial cities.

Giorgi Vashadze, a prominent opposition leader, wrote on Facebook: “the self-proclaimed, illegitimate government has already legally signed the betrayal of Georgia and the Georgian people.”

President Salome Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of Georgian Dream whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said the ruling party had “declared not peace, but war against its own people, its past and future.”

Zourabichvili’s term ends in December, and Georgian Dream has nominated a former lawmaker with hard-line anti-Western views to replace her.

The opposition says that an October election, in which official results gave the Georgian Dream bloc almost 54% of the vote, was fraudulent and have refused to take their seats. Western countries have called for a probe into alleged violations.

Georgian Dream and the country’s election commission say the election was free and fair.

Earlier on Thursday, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists that EU membership might harm Georgia’s economy, as it would require Tbilisi to cancel visa-free agreements and trade deals with other countries.

The EU gave Georgia candidate status in December 2023 but has said that a raft of laws passed by Georgian Dream since, including curbs on “foreign agents” and LGBTQ rights, are authoritarian, Russian-inspired and obstacles to EU membership.

Foreign and domestic critics of Georgian Dream say the party, which is seen as dominated by its billionaire founder, ex-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, is steering Georgia back toward Moscow, from which it gained independence in 1991.

Russia and Georgia have had no formal diplomatic relations since a five-day war in 2008 but have had a limited rapprochement recently, with Moscow lifting a ban on flights to Georgia and scrapping a stringent visa regime for Georgians working in Russia.

Opinion polls show most Georgians dislike Russia, which continues to back two breakaway Georgian regions and defeated Tbilisi in the 2008 war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking on Thursday on a visit to Kazakhstan, praised the “courage and character” he said Georgian authorities had shown in passing the law on foreign agents, which domestic critics have likened to Russian legislation.
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LONDON — British and American authorities are investigating after several drones were spotted in recent days flying over four U.S. military bases in England. Britain has deployed dozens of troops around the bases amid concerns the overflights could be acts of deception or sabotage by an adversary such as Russia.

In a statement issued Wednesday, U.S. Air Forces in Europe said that “small unmanned aerial systems continue to be spotted in the vicinity of and over Royal Air Force Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, RAF Feltwell and RAF Fairford since Nov. 20.” It said the number of drones sighted has fluctuated and has ranged in size and configurations.

“To date, installation leaders have determined that none of the incursions impacted base residents, facilities or assets. The air force is taking all appropriate measures to safeguard the aforementioned installations and their residents,” the statement said.

RAF Lakenheath in the east of England is home to the U.S. Air Force 48th Fighter Wing, a cornerstone of its combat capability in Europe and home to several F-35 stealth fighter jets, among other aircraft. Four American B-52 strategic bombers are currently based at RAF Fairford in the west of the country.

The Pentagon said this week it is actively monitoring the situation. “The bottom line is it’s something that we’re going to take seriously. We’re continuing to look into it. But as of right now, [it] has not had any significant mission impact,” Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters Tuesday, adding that small drones have become “relatively common now across the landscape.”

Britain has deployed about 60 soldiers around the U.S. bases. British Defense Minister Maria Eagle said they are using “multilayered force protection measures.”

“We will be making sure that anybody that we manage to catch for engaging in this behavior is shown the full force of the law,” Eagle told lawmakers Wednesday.

The nature of the sightings suggests the drones are not being operated by hobbyists, said David Dunn, a professor of international politics at Britain’s University of Birmingham, who has written extensively on the dangers posed by drones.

“It’s particularly alarming in this context that actually talked about there [being] several different sizes of drones. It does seem to be a coordinated and planned activity. The most obvious thing is that these are disruptive practices and that they actually force the airfield to operate in a different way, to suspend air operations,” Dunn told VOA.

The drones can also be used for other purposes.

“They can gather intelligence on how many planes are operating, where they’re based, what the movements are. And, actually, they can also do that for individuals,” Dunn said.

Drones have been sighted above the U.S. base at RAF Feltwell, which primarily serves as living quarters for U.S. military personnel — a “particularly sinister” development, according to Dunn.

“Because in an age where you have highly sophisticated fifth-generation aircraft that operate stealthily and invisibly in the electronic spectrum when they’re flying — and are highly protected on the airbase in hardened aircraft shelters — the most vulnerable part of the overall system is actually the aircrew,” Dunn told VOA.

“And so, if you can identify where they live by following them home onto their married quarters, you can identify where you can actually break the weakest part of that chain,” he said.

The Times of London newspaper reported that authorities have not ruled out Russia as the culprit. Dunn said there’s evidence of Moscow seeking to step up hybrid attacks, meaning a nonmilitary form of warfare that can still be destructive.

“Whether that be the disruption of undersea cables or of incendiary parcels being sent to the city I live in, Birmingham — there was an incendiary parcel found in Birmingham airport. There’s another [example] of a warehouse being burned down, which stored material going to Ukraine. These things are typically, it seems, done at third party, whereby the Russian state, it seems, has employed criminals in the U,K.,” Dunn said.

The Russian Embassy in London had not responded to VOA requests for comment by the time of publication. Moscow has previously denied any involvement in hybrid attacks on the West.
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Russian drones and missiles pounded Ukrainian energy infrastructure Thursday, cutting off power to more than 1 million people across the country, Ukrainian authorities said.

“As of now, 523,000 subscribers in the Lviv region are without electricity,” regional head Maksym Kozytsky said on social media. The region, in the western part of the country, borders Poland.

Directly north of the Lviv region, 215,000 customers lost power in the region of Volyn, and in the neighboring Rivne region, governor Oleksandr Koval said 280,000 consumers were without power.

“Energy infrastructure is once again targeted by the enemy’s massive strike,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook.

Ukrenergo, the national electrical grid operator, introduced emergency power cuts amid the attack, Galushchenko said.

Officials told Reuters that several nuclear power units were disconnected from the network during the attacks.

Private power company DTEK said the power cuts impacted Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.

Some regional officials said water service also was affected by the airstrikes.

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said in a Telegram post that Russia had stockpiled missiles to strike Ukrainian infrastructure and wage war against civilians during the cold season, The Associated Press reported.

Information from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters was used in the report. 
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Tehran, Iran — Iran is set to meet on Friday with France, Germany and the United Kingdom for talks on its nuclear program after the three governments joined with the United States to have Tehran censured by the U.N. atomic watchdog.

Last week’s chiding prompted a defiant response from Tehran, but its officials have since signaled willingness to engage with other parties ahead of the return of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, whose last administration pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” against the Islamic republic.

Iranian diplomat Majid Takht-Ravanchi, who serves as the political deputy to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, is scheduled to represent Iran in the talks on Friday.

He will meet beforehand with Enrique Mora, deputy secretary general of the EU’s foreign affairs arm, according to the IRNA state news agency.

Last week, the 35-nation board of governors of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution condemning Iran for its lack of cooperation on nuclear issues.

The resolution was brought by France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, and was actively opposed by Tehran.

In response, Iran announced the launch of “new advanced centrifuges” designed to increase its stockpile of enriched uranium.

Tehran’s willingness to sit down with the three European countries so soon after the censure comes just weeks before Trump is set to return to the White House in January.

During his first term, Trump focused on imposing heavy sanctions on Iran following the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal three years after it was established.

That agreement between Tehran and major powers aimed to give Iran relief from crippling Western sanctions in exchange for limiting its nuclear program to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

In retaliation for the U.S. withdrawal, Tehran has reduced its compliance with the deal, raising its uranium enrichment levels to 60% — close to the 90% required for a nuclear bomb.

Tehran has consistently denied any intentions of pursuing nuclear weapons.

For Tehran, the goal of the talks on Friday is to avoid a “double disaster” scenario, in which it would face renewed pressures from both Trump and European nations, according to political analyst Mostafa Shirmohammadi.

He noted that Iran’s support among European nations had been eroded by allegations it offered military assistance for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Iran has denied these accusations and hopes to mend relations with Europe, while also maintaining a firm stance.

‘Legal obligations’

The IAEA’s censure resolution urged Iran to “fulfil its legal obligations” under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) ratified in 1970, which requires member states to declare and maintain their nuclear materials under IAEA supervision.

In response, Foreign Minister Araghchi, who was instrumental in the nuclear negotiations in 2015, said Iran was commissioning “several thousand advanced centrifuges.”

The head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said Wednesday that they had begun inserting gas into the centrifuges.

Centrifuges work by rapidly spinning uranium gas to increase the proportion of the fissile isotope U-235.

Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, but according to the IAEA, it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state enriching uranium to 60%.

Under the 2015 accord — which will expire in October 2025 — Iran’s enrichment was capped at 3.67%.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final authority in Iran’s decision-making, has issued a religious decree, or fatwa, prohibiting the use of atomic weapons.

Iran’s nuclear program dates back to the late 1950s when the United States, then an ally, signed a civil cooperation agreement with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
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