Pope Francis drew criticism, including from Ukraine’s government, for off-the-cuff remarks he made to Russian Catholic youths over the weekend exalting the country’s cultural history. On Monday, the Holy See’s press office said the context of the remarks makes clear that the pope intended to encourage young people to preserve positive aspects of Russia’s cultural and spiritual heritage “and certainly not to exalt imperialistic logics and governmental personalities.”
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
The local media outlet MSK1 reported that Prigozhin’s family wished the burial arrangements to be kept secret, quoting a cemetery representative. The Russian news agency Interfax confirmed the burial. The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not plan to attend the funeral and that it had no details about a possible ceremony.
A Russian state news outlet published new footage of Paul Whelan, the Marine-turned-security-consultant serving a 16-year prison term in Russia. His brother, David Whelan, told a news outlet in Detroit that the video was his first glimpse of Paul since 2020, and that he looked determined and strong.
The video of Whelan, published by Russia Today, appeared to show him eating lunch and completing various tasks around a penal colony while wearing a black uniform. Whelan was arrested in Moscow in late 2018 on espionage charges, which he and the United States deny. The Biden administration has said it is working to secure his release. “It was reassuring to see that he remains, and this is to use his brother’s words, unbowed,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “Russia should release him immediately.”
The United States announced an additional support package worth some $250 million to bolster Ukraine’s security and defense, pledging to provide mine-clearing equipment, air defense missiles and ammunition for artillery and small arms. Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters that Washington and its allies and partners “will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
The funeral for Valeriy Chekalov, a senior Wagner manager in charge of logistics, is taking place in St. Petersburg’s Northern Cemetery, Russian media reported Tuesday.
Poland and the three Baltic countries called on Belarus to expel Russia’s Wagner Group over border security concerns. Wagner fighters led by Prigozhin — until the plane crash last week — moved to Russian ally Belarus as part of an agreement after threatening to march on Moscow in June. Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski made the demand at a news conference attended by his Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian counterparts.
The United Nations said it has recorded 9,511 confirmed civilian deaths in Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2022 but noted that its count is incomplete and that “the actual figures are considerably higher.” The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also said 17,206 people have been confirmed injured in the conflict.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said it plans to interrogate two U.S. diplomats after charging a former consulate staffer with “cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state,” The Washington Post reported. The diplomats were accused of directing the former employee, Robert Shonov — a Russian citizen who worked at the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok — to gather information about the war in Ukraine.
A Moscow court sentenced two Russian independent military analysts in absentia to 11 years prison for their online posts about the Russian military. The two, who reside outside Russia, are Ruslan Leviev of the Conflict Intelligence Team, which investigates military activity based on open data, and Michael Nacke, a former radio host who runs a YouTube channel with 1.4 million subscribers. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office labeled the Conflict Intelligence Team an “undesirable organization,” banning its work in Russia and making it a criminal offense to repost its content.
On Monday, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said remarks made by Pope Francis caused “great pain and concern” and inspired Russia’s “neocolonial ambitions.” The Vatican has sought to play a role in reaching a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, though its efforts so far have not yielded results — and on occasion, have infuriated Ukrainian officials. Still, Kyiv has welcomed the Holy See’s behind-the-scenes assistance in prisoner exchanges and its ongoing attempts to repatriate Ukrainian children who were taken to Russia.
Putin will not attend a Group of 20 summit in New Delhi next month, Russia’s Interfax news agency said, citing a readout from a call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A large fire at a military airfield in Pskov, Russia, was caused by a drone attack, regional governor Mikhail Vedetnikov said on Telegram. Four Il-76 military transport planes were damaged in the attack, reported the Russian state news agency Tass, citing emergency responders. Video footage shared on Telegram appeared to show a large fire and massive plumes of dark smoke at the airfield. Vedetnikov said that, according to preliminary information, there were no casualties.
Nearly 1,400 people, including 343 children, have been evacuated from Kupyansk, a city in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, in the past three weeks, according to the Kharkiv regional governor. Authorities have ordered thousands of Kupyansk residents to flee a surge in shelling and fighting in recent weeks.
A helicopter belonging to Russia’s FSB aviation detachment crashed in Chelyabinsk, southern Russia, killing three people, the governor of the region said Tuesday. He said there was no damage to residential buildings around the crash. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Air defenses destroyed a drone over Russia’s Tula region, south of Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday. Earlier, it said another drone was downed over Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine — part of a spate of attempted drone attacks that the Kremlin has blamed on Ukraine. There were no reports of casualties or damage.
Russia said it spotted two U.S. drones over the Black Sea, near Crimea, on Monday. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the two unmanned aerial vehicles belonged to the U.S. Air Force and that it put two fighter jets on alert before the drones changed direction. Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency said earlier that a U.S. drone was detected flying over the Black Sea on Sunday. The Post could not independently verify the reports.
Putin, stained by Prigozhin’s death, faces calls for military funeral: The Kremlin has said funerals for the Wagner members rest largely with their families after patriotic hard-liners called for Prigozhin to be buried with full military honors, Robyn Dixon reports.
“The swirling questions highlighted continuing divisions within Russia’s elite over the war, and the risks posed by hard-line pro-war ‘turbo-patriots’ who have demanded a harsher approach against Ukraine,” she writes.
Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.
