The leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, denied on Monday (15) that he had offered Ukraine information on the location of Russian troops to attack them, in exchange for the withdrawal of Ukrainian soldiers from the area around the city of Bakhmut.
According to documents leaked on the Discord platform and cited by The Washington PostPrigozhin allegedly made this offer to his contacts in the Directorate of Military Intelligence of Ukraine during a trip to Africa in late January, in view of the heavy casualties his mercenary group was suffering in the besieged Ukrainian city.
Later, the American newspaper removed the paragraph that mentioned Africa as the place where Prigozhin is said to have met with Ukrainians.
“I can safely say that I have not been to Africa at least since the beginning of the conflict (in Ukraine) and, in fact, for several months before the start of the special military operation. That is why I could not have met anyone there” , wrote Prigozhin in Telegram.
He took the opportunity to attack the US newspaper: “This newspaper prostitutes itself,” he commented.
The day before, the leader of Wagner had already reacted to the news, but limited himself to mocking the American newspaper.
Prigozhin believes that the source of this story could be “some journalist (who) tried to score points with this” or high-ranking Russian officials who got rich selling “oil to the Islamic State”.
The leader of the paramilitary group added that he had been warned about the possibility of such attacks by “honest collaborators in the US who work with The Washington Post”.
Prigozhin again resorted to irony when recommending that his political enemies in Russia hire the opponent, Alexei Navalny, currently imprisoned, who is much more “effective and professional” in these matters.
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