Pictured: Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary
..Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin called out selfish independent elites
…..He has accused leaders of an ‘their own agenda’ of sabotaging Russia’s success
Wagner’s leader claims that Ukraine’s counteroffensive might succeed against Russian military forces as a result of the ‘lazy Kremlin elite’.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner mercenary army deployed by the iKremlin, has warned that Russia’s elites are leaving the military at a crisis point in an online statement.
The warmonger, who has criticised Moscow’s efforts in Ukraine, claimed that Russia’s ‘lazy elite’ were to blame for the Kremlin’s ‘failures to secure a victory quickly’.
He wrote: ‘The Ukrainian army will launch a counteroffensive and somewhere will be able to break through the defences’.
Prigozhin’s statement marks the first time a senior Putin henchman, who is also directly involved in fighting on the ground, has publicly said that the Russian military is more likely to fail than succeed in the face of Ukraine’s expected attacks in the coming weeks.
While it is not confirmed when Ukraine is set to strike, it is believed that commanders have built up their forces for months ahead of the anticipated counteroffensive.
Mr Prigozhin added: ‘For Russia, there is a real risk that after the start of the counteroffensive, the situation at the front will worsen’.
‘In this case, in the [Russian] army, which for years considered itself one of the best armies in the world, decadent moods may begin at first, and then the situation degrades.’
This happened in historic wars with Finland and Japan, as well as in the First World War when the revolution came in 1917’s ‘tragic events’, he said.
He advised that in the face of the situation, people namely members of Russia’s ‘deep state’ would ‘betray the interests of Russia’ for their own gain.
‘Their focus is not on a country or a people, their focus is on their own positions in society, their own comfort and their own capital,’ he said.
‘At the same time, nothing threatens the supreme power of Russia, since it is a symbol of national unity and resistance to the West,’ Prigozhin previously wrote.
He added: ‘The best scenario for healing Russia so that it rallies together and becomes the strongest state is the offensive of the armed forces of Ukraine, in which no… negotiations will be possible.
And either the armed forces of Ukraine will be defeated in a fair fight, or Russia will lick its wounds, build up muscles and tear its rivals again in a fair fight.’
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believe that ‘internal enemies’ will inevitably push Russian forces to make adjustments, including returning Ukrainian territory, based upon Mr Prigozhin’s words.
The ISW said: ‘Prigozhin explicitly rejected the notion of any negotiations to end the war and urged Russians to continue fighting, even if it results in Russia’s temporary defeat’.
They added: ‘Prigozhin’s essay is thematically and logistically consistent with his previously stated effort to transform Wagner Group into a hardline ideological elite parallel military organisation.’
As of today, Ukrainian and Russian armed forces are fighting extraordinarily bloody battles in the smashed eastern city of Bakhmut, however, pro-Kyiv forces are still holding on, Ukraine’s military said.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed earlier in the day that fighters from the Wagner mercenary group had captured two more areas of Bakhmut, the main target of Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Wagner has spearheaded Russia’s attempt to take Bakhmut since last summer in what has been the longest and deadliest battle of the war for both sides.
‘Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city’s urban area,’ said Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command.
‘Our soldiers are doing everything in bloody and fierce battles to grind down (the enemy’s) combat capability and break its morale. Every day, in every corner of this city, they are successfully doing so,’ he told the 1+1 television channel.
The Russian defence ministry claimed Wagner units had taken two areas on the northern and southern outskirts of the city. Russian army paratroop units were supporting the claimed advance by holding back Ukrainian forces on the flanks, it added.
Britain said in an intelligence update on Friday that Ukrainian troops had been forced to cede some territory in Bakhmut as Russia mounted a renewed assault there, with intense artillery fire over the previous two days.
Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of around 70,000 people, has been Russia’s main target in a winter offensive that has so far yielded scant gains despite infantry ground combat of an intensity unseen in Europe since World War Two.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made no mention of Bakhmut in his daily video address on Saturday and reiterated Kyiv’s desire to join NATO as soon as possible. Ukraine would need effective security guarantees before that happened, he said, but gave no details.
Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner is a mercenary group headed up by Russian oligarch and close Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The group has for years acted as Putin’s personal band of enforcers, though it maintains connections with Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency, the GRU.
Founded in 2014 by a sinister former lieutenant colonel of Russia’s ‘Spetsnaz’ special forces, Dmitry Utkin, Wagner got straight to work following the annexation of Crimea, arming and organising separatist groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
WHAT IS WAGNER MERCENARY ARMY ?
Wagner group insignia is pictured
In the eight years between Crimea’s annexation and all-out war in Ukraine, Wagner mercs have been deployed abroad to covertly further Russian interests.
They were implicated in the Russian intervention in Syria where they helped to prop up the Assad regime, and went on to operate in countries throughout Africa including Mali, Central African Republic, Mozambique and Sudan.
Their goals differ in each region, but assignments almost invariably involve bolstering the military forces of the Kremlin’s preferred regimes by delivering weapons and training, and providing additional security services.
In return, Russia gains access to natural resources, investment opportunities and geopolitical influence.
Yevgeny Prigozhin (left) is the chief financier of the Wagner group and is a close ally of Russian President Putin (right)
An integral part of most Wagner assignments is gaining control over the local population and elements hostile to the regime – something in which the mercenaries have proved particularly ruthless.
The mercenaries have garnered a reputation for violence and brutality, achieving their goals by any means necessary.
The Wagner group is now deployed in a fighting capacity alongside regular Russian army soldiers in Ukraine, and has been credited with achieving much of Moscow’s success on the frontlines.
In autumn 2022, Prigozhin embarked on a mass recruitment drive in Russian prisons, signing up hardened criminals to swell his ranks and deploy them en-masse in Ukraine on suicidal missions to gain ground by using ‘human wave’ tactics.
As of March 2023, the Wagner group is receiving less support from the Russian military, as Prigozhin has a poor relationship with Russian armed forces commander Valery Gerasimov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
But his fighters are still heavily involved in combat operations across the frontlines in Ukraine.
…..Daily Mail UK
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