Yevgeny Prigozhin raises serious allegations again. Due to the Ukrainian offensive near Bakhmut, the focus of his attack is on the defense minister.
Munich – Is the wait for the Ukrainian counter-offensive over? Is it the first advances or is it already the turning point in the Ukraine war? At least it seems to be another dampener in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Because on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry admitted for the first time since November last year that Russian troops had to withdraw from individual front sections. Next to Vladimir Putin, exactly this fact doesn’t taste great: Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The Wagner boss has been lamenting for days and weeks that his Wagner group receives no ammunition and his mercenaries are now threatened with encirclement in the battle for Bachmut. According to him, other mercenary groups and Russian army forces are unable to hold the flanks.
Russia admits withdrawal in Ukraine war: “To increase defense stability”
Officially, the Russian Defense Ministry of President Vladimir Putin announced in a statement on the current situation in the Ukraine war on Friday: The “enemy” had carried out “offensive operations along the more than 95-kilometer-long contact line” and “more than a thousand military personnel until up to 40 tanks and other military and special equipment”. This was followed by the admission, which had been denied the day before with the words:
“Statements by individual Telegram channels about ‘defense breakthroughs’ that would have taken place at different points of the contact line do not correspond to reality.” So now the turn: “In order to increase the stability of the defense” Russian units “taking into account the favorable conditions of the Berkhovsky reservoir” moved into positions along the lake, the ministry in Moscow announced about the retreat in the Ukraine war.
Prigozhin attacks Putin’s general: Russia shows further signs of weakness in the Ukraine war
The renewed sign of weakness in the Ukraine war will probably not make the powerful in the Kremlin around Putin particularly positive. Also Prigozhin, who says he was “brazenly deceived” by the Kremlin, seems to be seething because of the developments in the Ukraine war and especially the situation in Bakhmut. After all, it was Wagner mercenaries who, at great cost, had invaded the city without ever gaining full control of it.
For the recent setbacks in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine Prigozhin, with which the Kremlin is said to be losing patienceidentified a new old scapegoat and pointed his finger at the blame in a sarcastic letter to Putin’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Ukraine war: Prigozhin blames Putin’s general for setbacks in Bakhmut
“You with your many years of experience in warfare,” says in Prigozhin’s sarcastic letter, which he addressed directly to Putin’s general in the Kremlin, Sergi Shoigu. The Minister of Defense should see “how the enemy has carried out successful counterattacks where Defense Ministry units are guarding the flanks”. Prigozhin’s statements related primarily to Ukraine’s territorial gains in the vicinity of Bakhmut. Recently he had simply accused the Russian army of “escape”.
According to current estimates, it is only a few square kilometers that the Ukrainian army has been able to regain through targeted advances in the past few days. Still, these conquests could herald the offensive in the coming months that Prigozhin recently warned about. The focus of the fighting was probably six places west of Bakhmut, where the Russian army had pushed back and apparently had to accept not inconsiderable losses.
War in Ukraine: Prigozhin asks Shoigu to get an idea of the situation in Bakhmut
Meanwhile, to back up Prigozhin’s statements, military bloggers loyal to the head of the Wagner mercenaries appear to have published maps of the war in Ukraine, which are said to show the alleged retreat of the Russian army in the Bakhmut area. That’s why Prigozhin asked his nemesis in the Kremlin to go to Bakhmut himself to get an idea of the catastrophic situation on the ground.
Russia can look back on various conquests in the Ukraine war and holds almost a sixth of Ukraine’s territory. Recent events are causing an uproar among Russian military bloggers. They see it as the start of the counter-offensive.
Ukraine war: Has the major offensive against Russia already begun?
Whether it is really the start of the major offensive against Russia in the Ukraine war cannot be said at the moment. It may also only be a first pinprick, as Ukraine’s expected counter-offensive could also begin in a different location or locations. After all, the military strategists in Kiev could focus on smaller attacks on different sectors of the front rather than on a large-scale offensive.
However, that is just pure speculation. What is certain, however, is that the major offensive has probably not yet begun. The recent advances involved neither the new brigades trained by the West nor contingents of Leopard and Challenger tanks. Bradley, Marder or armored personnel carriers apparently played no role in the recent conquests in the area around Bakhmut.
But Prigozhin’s reaction already allows insights into how the Wagner boss would react to the start of the major offensive and who he would hold responsible for further losses of territory in the Russian army.
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