There have been signs this week that the Russian military is starting to turn on itself. The leader of Russia's main mercenary group, the Wagner Group, announced plans on Friday to withdraw from the eastern-Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has been a focal point of intense fighting since August last year.
However, some remain sceptical that his threats may be a rhetorical decoy, to evoke a false sense of security in the Ukrainian military before a renewed Russian offensive. On the ground, the Ukrainian military said Russian fighters were reinforcing positions in an attempt to seize Bakhmut before Russia’s World-War-Two Victory Day next week.
The Wagner Group is a Russian paramilitary organization associated with Neo-Nazism. Technically a mercenary company, it has also been described as Putin’s private army. Private military companies are officially forbidden in Russia. However, the Wagner Group not only operates above the law but openly recruits from Russian prisons in evident close cooperation with the state.
The group also receives equipment from the Russian Ministry of Defence and has been described as a unit of Russia's military intelligence agency. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group and also known as “Putin’s Chef” because he has provided catering for several official events for Putin, said his men were completely lacking ammunition in Bakhmut.
Prigozhin, although known for his emotional outbursts, was surprisingly hostile towards top Russian military leadership and even Putin himself, suggesting that Russia is turning on itself under Ukrainian pressure:
“They are sitting there with their flabby bellies, thinking they will go down in history as victors, but they have already gone down as cowards. I am officially informing the Defence Minister and the Chief of the General Staff and the Supreme Commander in Chief [Putin]..."
May the 9th is “Victory Day” in Russia – the main day of World War Two commemoration, introduced by the Soviet Union as a celebration of “Soviet victory over Germany”.
Prigozhin said on Sunday that he has now been promised more ammunition.
Sources: The Telegraph, The Guardian, Reuters, Twitter
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