Ukraine's grinding counteroffensive pivots to 'drone attacks on Russian territory'
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00:00 As they continue their counter-offensive against the invading Russian forces, the Ukrainian
00:04 military says it has now fully liberated the strategic settlement of Robotin, which is
00:09 in the south-east in the region of Zaporizhia.
00:11 A Ukrainian commander says this latest breakthrough will allow Kiev's forces to start advancing
00:16 more quickly in the south, notably as they eye the Russian-occupied city of Tokmak.
00:22 Analysts say that the recapture of Tokmak would be a significant milestone.
00:26 Let's get more now and we can speak to political analyst Alexandra Filipenko, who joins us
00:31 from Vilnius.
00:32 Thank you very much indeed for joining us once again here on France 24.
00:36 What's your understanding of what the situation on the ground in Ukraine is like and how the
00:42 Ukrainian counter-offensive is doing?
00:45 The Ukrainian counter-offensive is going not as fast maybe as the European side and the
00:52 American side anticipated, but it's going steadily and surely, let's put it this way.
00:59 And I must say that the big part of the Ukrainian offensive right now are the drones that are
01:04 attacking Russian territory.
01:07 And in the military offices of Kiev now there is the whole separate group that is dealing
01:14 with drones.
01:16 We haven't seen that before and they are taking care exactly and only the drones that are
01:23 working from the Ukrainian territory.
01:25 So Ukrainian counter-offensive is going, but again, not as fast as expected.
01:33 But I think some things might change with the Wagner group that left Ukraine and is
01:40 not expected to go back.
01:42 So this will most probably affect the war in Ukraine and this will be to Ukraine's benefit.
01:48 And so the changes might come in the next months.
01:51 It won't be big, it won't be fast, but the changes are coming due to Wagner group not
01:59 only leaving Ukraine but being actually destroyed.
02:02 Yeah, indeed, because we were talking about Yevgeny Prigozhin's death here on France 24
02:07 last week as that news broke.
02:09 And it has now, of course, at least been confirmed by Russian officials.
02:14 And I wanted to ask you whether Prigozhin's death in itself could have some sort of impact
02:19 on the course of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
02:24 I think this will definitely affect the war, but not directly, not exactly today.
02:30 And I must stress that not the absence of Wagner, but exactly Prigozhin's death, that
02:36 it weakens Putin actually.
02:38 And it's not a show of force, as some people try to present it.
02:42 I think the Kremlin would like to present it as a show of force, but it's rather a show
02:46 of systems weakness, actually, to my mind at least.
02:50 Why would you kill someone if you can send him to trial and then to jail when you have
02:56 trials and when you have everything at your fingertips?
03:00 For example, Putin sent his nemesis Navalny, Alexei Navalny, to jail.
03:05 So everyone knows that Russian courts are fake.
03:10 It's a mess and they don't really work.
03:12 They do exactly what FSB tells them to do, Russian security forces, what they tell them
03:17 to do.
03:18 So that's what courts do.
03:20 So why?
03:21 They would definitely send Prigozhin to jail.
03:23 Why kill him in this manner?
03:25 So this means that Putin was actually afraid of Yevgeny Prigozhin.
03:30 He was afraid of what this mutiny that Yevgeny Prigozhin started.
03:35 What it could end with.
03:37 So it shows the whole world that if Putin makes a deal, he is not trustworthy.
03:42 You cannot trust him.
03:44 He made a deal with Prigozhin.
03:46 And the Wagner Group, which a few months ago could be a big force, actually, not only in
03:51 Ukraine but also in Russia, it actually no longer exists.
03:55 So Prigozhin's death will definitely affect the war.
03:58 But I think it will affect the war in this manner of showing that there are big problems
04:05 in the Kremlin.
04:07 And this will bring some more troubles to the Kremlin and to President Putin personally.
04:13 Have we found anything new with regards to the death of Prigozhin in recent days?
04:18 Any new facts come to light or anything that struck you as being interesting with regards
04:23 to his demise last Wednesday?
04:28 Yes, I've read a lot from a lot of respected open source intelligence, independent journalists
04:35 like Andrei Zakharov.
04:37 He put, he stressed a few interesting things.
04:40 First of all, actually, Yevgeny Prigozhin had not one but at least two meetings with
04:46 President Putin.
04:48 First meeting was with Wagner commanders, at which Putin joked, that's typical, let's
04:54 say, for Russia's president.
04:56 Well, here you are in the Kremlin.
04:59 That's what he said.
05:00 And the second meeting was less public, at which Putin allegedly said that Prigozhin
05:05 could safely deal far abroad, but not in Russia and not in Ukraine.
05:11 But after that, the defense ministry was not just trying to squeeze Prigozhin and Wagner
05:17 group out of Syria and Africa, but they actually began to strangle Wagner, we can put it this
05:23 way.
05:24 The defense, the ministry of defense, the deputy actually, minister of defense, he went
05:31 to Syria, he went to Libya, and he made deals over there so that Libyan and Syrian government
05:38 will make Wagner leave those territories.
05:42 So these are new facts that are quite interesting.
05:45 And also I must stress that really struck me that the Kremlin, actually Putin's spokesperson,
05:51 Dmitry Peskov, said that they know nothing, absolutely nothing about how Prigozhin and
05:56 his commanders will be buried.
05:58 They are heroes of Russia.
06:00 They are supposed to be buried with honors and meaning the military parade and the military
06:07 band and military personnel.
06:09 And also their coffins must be covered in the flags of Russia.
06:14 But most probably there will be nothing like that.
06:17 Most probably they will be buried without honors and even maybe on different cemeteries.
06:23 That's according to the authorities.
06:25 They prohibit any mass funerals for Wagner group and for Evgeny Prigozhin.
06:30 So these are the things that kind of struck me that actually things are much more serious,
06:38 let's say in the Kremlin, then, but that then Putin wants to show everyone.
06:42 But again, I must stress that a lot of people try to present and they think that this was
06:49 a show of force.
06:50 But to me, this shows actually weakness of the Kremlin right now.
06:54 Okay.
06:55 Thanks a lot.
06:56 Yeah.
06:57 As you say, it remains to be seen whether or not Evgeny Prigozhin will get something
06:59 resembling a state funeral or state honors at his burial.
07:03 Thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us.
07:05 We're out of time.
07:06 Aleksandra Filipenko, thank you for being with us once again on France 24.