The head of the Wagner mercenary group offered to reveal the positions of Russian troops to the Ukrainian government, according to a new report.
The Washington Post, citing leaked documents, said that in January Yevgeny Prigozhin had offered the information in exchange for Ukraine withdrawing its soldiers from the besieged city of Bakhmut.
Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group has been leading the assault for the city for months now and has suffered huge casualties in the process.
How reliable are the claims?
According to the Washington Post, two Ukrainian officials confirmed that Prigozhin had spoken to Ukrainian intelligence on several occasions.
Has Prighozin said anything?
On Monday, Prigozhin laughed off the report in an audio message posted on Telegram.
"Reading this is of course nice. It means I am not only fighting for Russia but Zelensky is also fulfilling my orders," Prigozhin said.
"This is laughable."
He said "people from Rublevka" – a luxurious Moscow suburb home to the Russian elite – could be behind the allegations. "Of course they will pour as much shit on me as they can," he said.
What was Ukraine’s response?
Kyiv had rejected the offer as they didn’t trust Prigozhin and could not be sure of his true intentions.
Do we know anything about his intentions?
It’s very murky, but Prigozhin’s recent behavior certainly indicates there is no love lost between Wagner and the regular Russian army.
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In what has become a long-running saga, the Wagner chief has repeatedly clashed with army chiefs over support and supplies of ammunition.
Earlier this month, after he angrily accused Kremlin officials of withholding ammunition, he threatened to withdraw his fighters from Bakhmut “to lick our wounds.”
“I will pull out Wagner units from Bakhmut because in the absence of ammunition they are facing a senseless death,” he said, adding that he was waiting for “orders to leave Bakhmut.”
Earlier the same day, Prigozhin released a shocking video (GRAPHIC WARNING) in which he appeared surrounded by the dead bodies of Wagner fighters. Shouting into the camera, he said: “These are the Wagner PMC guys who died today, still bleeding fresh. Now listen to me – these are somebody’s fathers and sons. And those who don’t give us ammunition will be in hell.”
What’s the current situation in Bakhmut?
Things are not going well for Wagner and Russia. On Sunday evening Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said Kyiv’s forces have captured more than 10 Russian positions on the outskirts of the frontline city of Bakhmut.
“Enemy soldiers of various units have been captured,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said in a post on social media on Sunday evening.
“Anyone who knows the real situation and is there now understands the gravity of what is happening,” she added.
Maliar said that “fierce” fighting continued in Bakhmut, located in the eastern region of Donetsk, and that Russians were trying to advance and destroying “everything” on their way.
It marks the latest development in what appears to be a string of successes for Ukraine in the area of Bakhmut.
On Saturday, Kyiv said its armed forces were “moving forward” in the Bakhmut sector, in what the head of the mercenary group Wagner has described as a “rout” for Russian forces.
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