Russian missiles hit Kharkiv, Georgian protesters jeer arrival of Russian ship, Prigozhin mutiny derails UK plans to blacklist Wagner PMC

Novaya-Europe’s round-up

It is day 522 of the war in Ukraine.

One person was injured in a missile strike on Kharkiv.

A drone crashed on a village in southern Russia, damaging a house and a car.

Ten people were arrested in Georgia’s Batumi during a protest against the arrival of a Russian cruise ship.

Dissident Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko was detained in Tallinn after throwing eggs at the Russian embassy.

The UK had planned to declare the Wagner PMC a terrorist organisation but cannot do it since the Kremlin has admitted to financing the mercenaries.

Read the top headlines of last night in Novaya-Europe’s round-up.

One person injured in missile strike on Kharkiv

Russia launched missiles against the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, injuring one person, a spokesman for the regional prosecutor’s office said.

“The occupiers are carrying out strikes. We ask residents of Kharkiv and the [Kharkiv] region to stay in shelters,” head of the Kharkiv regional administration Oleh Synyegubov wrote shortly after midnight.

City mayor Ihor Terekhov said later that a total of two missiles reached the city itself, hitting non-residential buildings and starting a fire. One person who was not far from the epicentre of the explosion sustained injuries.

The prosecutor’s office added that another missile hit a house in the Kupyansk district in the eastern part of the Kharkiv region. No injuries or casualties were reported.

The office also claimed that the S-300 missiles were launched from Russia’s Belgorod region.

Drone crash causes fire outside Taganrog in southern Russia

A drone crashed late Sunday evening in the village of Daraganovka near the southern Russian city of Taganrog, governor of the Rostov region Vasily Golubev reported.

“The roof of a private residence and a car have been damaged. An ambulance is on its way, but so far no injuries have been reported,” Golubev said, adding that the origin of the drone was in the process of being determined.

Local news outlet 161.ru reported an explosion and a fire in a private house, quoting a source as saying that one woman received burns while attempting to put out the fire by herself.

Vasily Danilenko, head of the Neklinovsky district where the village is located, claims that nobody was injured.

Several people arrested after protest against arrival of Russian ship in Georgia’s Batumi

The Georgian city of Batumi saw another protest against the arrival of the cruise ship Astoria Grande carrying Russian tourists, the channel Rustavi 2 reports, saying some of the demonstrators clashed with the police.

Georgia’s Channel One reported the arrest of about ten people. Representatives of several opposition parties are present at the demonstration.

The cruise ship arrived in Batumi in the early hours of 31 July. It is being guarded by law enforcement.

Dissident journalist throws eggs at Russian embassy in Tallinn

TASS reports that a man has been detained in the Estonian capital for throwing eggs against the wall of the Russian embassy.

The incident happened late Sunday night. Local police reported without giving any names that the perpetrator was a man born in 1977. They also did not specify what he was being charged with.

Exiled Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who was born in 1977, posted a photo of himself in a police car on Facebook and added that it was him who threw the eggs at the Russian embassy.

Babchenko left Russia in 2017. He spent two years in Ukraine, but left the country after Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Babchenko is critical of, was elected president. Babchenko currently resides in Estonia and regularly expresses anti-war sentiments in the media and online. Russia listed him as a “foreign agent” in April 2023.

The Times: Prigozhin mutiny derails UK plans to blacklist Wagner PMC

The mutiny of the Wagner Group’s head Yevgeny Prigozhin in June and the mercenaries’ financing by the Kremlin derailed British plans to declare the PMC a terrorist organisation, The Times reports citing anonymous sources.

Before the mutiny it was believed that, while acting in the interests of the Russian government, Wagner was a fully private army. However, after Vladimir Putin admitted the hefty sums that the Russian state gave to Wagner, blacklisting the PMC became more challenging, since it would mean banning a Russian governmental organisation, which would lead to legal and diplomatic complications.

Nonetheless, The Times writes, Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat intend to ensure that the PMC is declared a terrorist organisation.