The Kremlin said on Friday July 14 that it was considering the legalization of private military companies, in particular the Wagner group, whose existence is currently still not authorized by Russian law. “Legally, the private military company Wagner does not exist and never existed, it is a question to be studied, to be examined further”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, noting that this is a “rather complex question”. Follow the latest developments in the war in Ukraine in our live.
kyiv announces that it shot down 16 Russian drones overnight. On Telegram, the country’s army announced that it had shot down 16 explosive drones out of the 17 launched by Russia “from the southeast of the country” overnight from Thursday to Friday. These Shahed-type drones, manufactured by Iran, have caused heavy damage since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Legion of Honor for Arman Soldin. The Franco-Bosnian journalist, video coordinator at Agence France-Presse, was decorated knight of the Legion of Honor posthumously, according to the Official Journal published on Friday. Aged 32, he had lost his life in an attack by Russian Grad rockets in eastern Ukraine, not far from the besieged city of Bakhmout.
New dissensions in the Russian army. Major-General Ivan Popov, at the head of troops positioned in the Ukrainian region of Zaporijjia, says he was suspended from his duties after criticism deemed too harsh against the Russian general staff. In an audio message that has been circulating on Telegram since Wednesday evening, he claims to have been sanctioned for having denounced the heavy human losses on the Russian side, as well as the lack of sufficiently sophisticated equipment.
US cluster munitions for kyiv. Ukraine’s armed forces have already received cluster munitions, a controversial piece of equipment promised by Washington to Kiev to help it in its slow counteroffensive against the Russian army, military officials from both countries said Thursday. “We just received them, we haven’t used them yet, but they can change drastically” the situation on the battlefield, said Oleksandre Tarnavsky, the commander of the counteroffensive in the south of the country, in an interview with CNN.