The head of the “Wagner Group” speaks openly about tensions in Kremlin circles and publishes a version of the front defense that contradicts Putin’s statements.
Luhansk – In mid-October, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group, announced that his mercenary force wanted to set up a secure line to “defend” the occupied Luhansk region in the Ukraine war. As has now become known, he apparently caused discord within the Russian circle of power. Because his account of the course of defense does not match the official Kremlin version.
Ukraine War: Wagner Group Defense Line Mismatches Kremlin Version
Hardliner Yevgeny Prigozhin is actually considered a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, he had recently attracted attention again and again with critical statements about the course of the war. Now the oligarch, who has become known as “Putin’s cook”, has published details of the “Wagner line”. The maps show that the “Wagner Line” proposed by Prigozhin would defend the border between Belgorod Oblast and Sumy, Kharkiv and Luhansk Oblasts of Ukraine. However, the plans of the defense line also reveal that the north of the Luhansk region would not be protected, one said Analysis by US war experts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on Saturday. This would contradict the Kremlin’s promises to defend Luhansk in its entirety.
Essentially, the “Wagner Line” is only defending the area that Russia had already controlled before the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, according to the ISW experts. The line of defense includes some newly occupied settlements such as Lysychansk, Zolote and Popasna, but excludes Kreminna and Severodonetsk. British intelligence appears to support the views of US war experts. According to Prigozhin, the Severskyi Donets river could also be integrated into the defense zone, British intelligence officials said on Sunday. Released images show a section of newly constructed anti-tank systems and trenches southeast of the city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region, the intelligence officials said. Apparently, Putin’s cook only wants to defend those areas that he believes he can actually hold – and not what the Kremlin would like, the ISW war experts sum up.
Tension in Russian circles of power: Apparently there are two camps when it comes to war
The Russian city of Belgorod has recently been repeatedly hit by bullets, according to Russian sources. Russian nationalist circles accuse the Kremlin of not adequately defending the border with Belgorod. According to ISW experts, Prigozhin could try to strengthen these demands on Putin with his statements. In addition, the Wagner boss openly criticized the fact that Russian regional officials had paused the expansion of the “Wagner Line”.
In a message in the short message service Telegram, Prigozhin now provided very concrete indications of tensions within the Russian power circle. It is divided into two parts: “Those who are consciously trying to protect the Russian people from possible enemy provocations, and others, usually members of the government and administrations at various levels, who are directly opposed to the interests of the population “, the oligarch is quoted there. “You can call them bureaucratic enemies,” he continued. Recently there had been repeated reports of differences of opinion in Putin’s power apparatus.
According to the UK MoD, preparations for the Wagner project indicate that Russia is “making significant efforts to thoroughly prepare defenses behind the current front line, which is likely to deter rapid Ukrainian counter-offensives.” However, the fact that construction is said to have been stopped or at least interrupted raises questions.
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