This is the 838th day of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. On the wPolitce.pl website, we report events on the front for you.

READ MORE: REPORTS from the war day by day.

Monday, June 10, 2024

17:10. Independent media: 1/3 of Russian prisoners sent to Ukraine died in Bakhmut

The Russian mercenary Wagner Group recruited more than 48,000 people for the war with Ukraine. prisoners from prison; more than 17 thousand of them, i.e. more than 1/3, died in 2022-23 in the Battle of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast – said the editorial office of BBC Russia and the independent website Mediazona.

The recruitment of soldiers in the prison was referred to by the Wagnerite leadership, including the then head of the formation, Yevgeny Prigozhin, as “project 42174” or “project K”. The prisoners were promised freedom and forgiveness after six months on the front lines. It was also believed that if the mercenary died, his relatives would receive high compensation. The first prisoners were recruited by the Wagner Group on 1 July 2022 in one of the penal colonies in Leningrad Oblast. A similar case was last recorded on February 7, 2023 in Kemerovo Oblast in Siberia, reported opposition journalists who analyzed internal Wagnerite documents.

Even the authorities of the Wagner Group did not hide the fact that prisoners sent to the Bachmut sector of the front were sent to death, because the battle for the city was called the “Bachmut slaughterhouse”. More than 19,500 people died in this battle. Wagnerians, of whom there are almost 17.2 thousand people recruited in prisons – we read in Monday’s report.

Investigative journalists managed to identify 341 of the 501 gulags where prisoners were recruited to serve their sentences. A total of 227 are high-security penal colonies, and 28 are prisons with special status, intended for particularly dangerous criminals, including: people sentenced to life imprisonment – revealed by the BBC and Mediazona.

The study reported that Wagnerian paid compensation to the families of fallen prisoners totaling nearly 108 billion rubles, or almost PLN 5 billion. Each family will receive 5 million rubles (approximately PLN 225,000) and an additional 300,000. rubles (over PLN 13,000) to organize the funeral.

The Battle of Bakhmut was one of the longest and bloodiest clashes during Russia’s war against Ukraine. The fighting lasted from August 2022 to the second half of May 2023, when Prigozhin declared that his units had captured the city.

Information about sending Russian prisoners to war has emerged since 2022, almost from the beginning of the Kremlin’s open invasion of Ukraine. The BBC and Mediazona editorial staff’s report on Russia coincides with previous estimates by Western analysts, who estimated the number of prisoners recruited for the front at at least several tens of thousands.

16:16. 32 Ukrainians fled illegally to Hungary. They were driving trucks with fake number plates

A group of 32 men, Ukrainian citizens, illegally entered Hungary in trucks with fake military numbers, where they were detained by local authorities, Ukrainian media reported on Monday.

This news was confirmed by the spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Andriy Demchenko, reported Ukrainska Pravda. The portal explained that the incident occurred on Sunday near the Ukrainian-Hungarian border crossing Kosyno-Barabasi. Kosyno is located in the Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine.

The camera captured a truck driving along a dirt road towards the border. The vehicle was later found on the Hungarian side without passengers. Later, the Hungarian side announced the detention of 32 people

— wrote Ukrainska Pravda.

Demchenko said border guards were investigating the matter. This indicates that the truck’s registration number is fake and does not belong to the Ukrainian army. He added that the Hungarians had not handed over the prisoners to Ukraine.

11:47. General Hołubtsov: Some F-16 fighters will be stored abroad

Some of the F-16 fighters that Ukraine will receive from Western partners will be kept in secure bases outside our country’s territory so that they do not become targets for Russian attacks, said the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, General Serhiy Holubtsov.

Not all aircraft to be transferred to Ukraine will arrive in Ukraine immediately. Some of them will remain at the training center where our pilots and ground staff are prepared. These are Ukrainian aircraft used to train our own pilots

— said the general in an interview with the Donbas portal. Radio Realia Swoboda.

Some of the machines that the Indonesian Air Force is waiting for will be stored abroad, he stressed.

Certain parts of the aircraft will be stored at secure air bases, not in Ukraine, so as not to become targets (for Russia). This will be our backup if we need to replace a damaged aircraft or undergo renovation

– said Holubtsov.

02:00. Zelensky pointed to the most difficult front!

Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region. This is always the hardest part on the front line. The pressure from the invaders was greatest there. Every day there are the largest number of fights. Just yesterday there were more than forty attacks, and today, so far, there have been more than twenty attacks

— reported Ukraine’s president, posting the footage online.

Every soldier of ours who destroyed the enemy there, every soldier and commander who did everything to defend our position and help the soldiers in neighboring positions deserves special thanks.

– added Volodymyr Zelensky.