Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, said the base was “destroyed by a precision strike” after its location was established “thanks to a Russian journalist”. Ukrainian news website Ukrainska Pravda reported that a Kremlin military correspondent visited the mercenary headquarters on August 8 and posted a photo on Telegram showing a nearby address. The paramilitary group has been linked by Western intelligence to Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is a close associate of Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin was reported to be at the base just days before the Ukrainian strike. The presence of Wagner paramilitaries has been documented in Libya, Mali and Syria, among many other countries – particularly in Africa. Ukrainian authorities said saboteurs blew up a railway bridge southwest of the city of Melitopol, which is held by Russian troops. Melitopol mayor Ivan Fyodorov told Telegram that the strike meant there would be a “complete absence of military trains from Crimea”. The Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, is an essential supply base for Russian troops deployed in southern Ukraine. Ukraine has said it is waging a counteroffensive in the country’s south, recapturing dozens of villages and threatening to push Russian troops across the Dnieper River. Meanwhile, in Odessa, on the Black Sea, three people were killed while swimming after an “unidentified explosive device” detonated, local authorities spokesman Serhii Brachuk said. Authorities have warned beachgoers not to enter the sea due to the presence of unexploded mines. Earlier on Monday, Russian shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killed at least one person and wounded six others, a senior police official, Sergei Bolvinov, said on Facebook.
