Wagner Group
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Budanov reveals years of back-channel contacts with Russia's GRU chief and Prigozhin, advises Zelensky against Donbas concessions
Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with The New York Times published on 4 September that he maintained long-running contacts with Russian military intelligence chief Admiral Igor Kostyukov and the late Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. He advised President Volodymyr Zelensky not to accept any compromise on Donbas that would give Russia formal control over territory its military failed to seize on the battlefield.
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Finland court cuts Rusich co-founder Torden's war crimes sentence from life to 12.5 years
Finland's Helsinki Court of Appeal reduced the sentence of Voislav Torden (Yan Petrovsky), co-founder of the Russian neo-Nazi Rusich group, from life imprisonment to 12.5 years for war crimes committed in Ukraine in 2014. The court dismissed several charges, including command responsibility and the personal-killing charge, while confirming other war crimes including firing on Ukrainian soldiers and distributing photographs of a burned Ukrainian soldier's body.