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Another possibility is the erosion of Western support over time. Think of the failed mutiny, for instance - the point being that what decides the end may be an event in Russia that we simply can't foresee. It may very well be that that is where it ends. The war started in Moscow as a thought - or grievance - in Putin's head. The best way to frame the question is to try and think about things beyond the immediate battlefield. This is the question many people are asking and there are so many variables that it's impossible to answer, but I will try.įirstly, this war has been unique in so many ways and is also extraordinarily unpredictable so anything I write could become dated very quickly. Today's comes from Ollie, who asks: What do you think the most likely outcome of the war to be? Will the West eventually pressure Kyiv to resign itself to losing the Donbas and Crimea, or is a total Ukrainian victory likely?Īnswering this one is our international correspondent Alex Rossi. The White House said it was "not able to corroborate" the report, in response to a query about whether Wagner forces reached the base and sought to acquire nuclear weapons.Īny point that nuclear weapons or materials were at risk," White House national security council spokesman Adam Hodge said.Įvery weekday our correspondents and analysts tackle one of your questions about the war. Reuters reported that a source close to the Kremlin with military ties had corroborated parts of Mr Budanov's account.Ī Wagner contingent "managed to get into a zone of special interest, as a result of which the Americans got agitated because nuclear munitions are stored there", this person said, without elaborating further. He did not provide any evidence to support his assertion. Kyrylo Budanov had said Wagner fighters reached the Voronezh-45 nuclear base on 24 June - the day the mutiny ended - and had intended to acquire small Soviet-era nuclear devices in order to "raise the stakes" in their mutiny. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described earlier comments from Ukraine's head of military intelligence as "misinformation", adding that Moscow had "no such information". Moscow has dismissed claims that members of the Wagner mercenary group had intended to acquire nuclear devices during their failed mutiny last month.
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