[ad_1] It appears President Vladimir Putin has more to worry about than the Ukrainian military brandishing newly-imported Western arms, as reports o
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It appears President Vladimir Putin has more to worry about than the Ukrainian military brandishing newly-imported Western arms, as reports of dissent from high-profile Russians continue to filter through the Kremlin’s grasp.
An explosive leaked document has revealed the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, offered to disclose the positions of Russian troops to Ukrainian officials in exchange for their mercy on the battlefield.
According to leaked intelligence documents, Prigozhin made the offer in a January meeting with unnamed Ukrainian officials, where he requested that they pull back from the front lines of battle in Bakhmut, in exchange for revealing the locations of Russian troops and allowing Ukraine to attack.
The documents do not specify which troop positions Prigozhin offered to reveal, and US officials cast doubt on his intentions.
Two anonymous Ukrainian officials confirmed that Prigozhin had spoken to Ukrainian intelligence officers on multiple occasions, but Ukrainian leaders declined his offer, citing scepticism of his objectives.
Prigozhin has criticised Mr Putin for not supplying his troops with enough ammunition, vowing to pull his troops from Bakhmut earlier this month in an incensed video posted to Telegram.
The open act of defiance comes as a very public humiliation for Mr Putin as Russia attempts to gain further ground in a war that has lingered for nearly 18 months.
Prigozhin revealed a massive problem for Russia – that Russians had “fled” the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
“The situation on the western flanks is developing according to the worst of the predicted scenarios,” Prigozhin said in an audio message released on Thursday. “Those territories that were liberated with the blood and lives of our comrades … are abandoned today almost without any fight by those who are supposed to hold our flanks.”
Earlier in the week, Prigozhin marred Russia’s May 9 Victory Day celebrations with public and foul-mouthed criticisms of the country’s top military officials.
“Today they [Ukrainians] are tearing up the flanks in the Artemovsk [Bakhmut] direction, regrouping at Zaporizhzhia. And a counteroffensive is about to begin,” he said Tuesday. “Victory Day is the victory of our grandfathers. We haven’t earned that victory one millimetre.”
Russia’s defence ministry, however, refuted Prigozhin’s claims late on Thursday, saying reports of breakthroughs around Bakhmut “do not correspond to reality”.
He also made a cryptic comment that raised eyebrows on social media — saying Russia’s uniformed military was starving his troops of shells.
After his announcement, Russia launched a massive incendiary attack on the city using apparent chemical weapons.
Experts on the matter say Prigozhin is skirting the line with Mr Putin, especially at a time when open critics of the Russian establishment are being detained in droves.
However, in a recent analysis, the Institute for the Study of War said Prigozhin’s comments could open a floodgate of bad sentiment towards Mr Putin as he scrambles to stamp out politically-charged critics.
“If the Kremlin does not respond to Prigozhin’s escalating attacks on Putin it may further erode the norm in Putin’s system in which individual actors can jockey for position and influence (and drop in and out of Putin’s favour) but cannot directly criticise Putin,” the institute posted to Twitter.
Prigozhin has since 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 s**t on me as they can,” he said. Last week, Prigozhin accused Moscow’s conventional army of “fleeing” positions around Bakhmut.
Meanwhile, France has pledged dozens more light tanks and armoured vehicles after President Emmanuel Macron met Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris this weekend.
Russia has “already lost geopolitically” its war in Ukraine and is effectively becoming a vassal state of China, Mr Macron declared on Sunday.
“De facto, it has entered a form of subservience with regards to China and has lost its access to the Baltic, which was critical, because it prompted the decision by Sweden and Finland to join NATO,” Mr Macron told the Opinion newspaper.
“This was unthinkable just two years ago. So it’s already a geopolitical defeat.”
Russia has been gutted by economic sanctions imposed by the West in early 2022 and must now put all of its chips into completing its “special military operation” in Ukraine for the current administration to maintain itself.
“Let’s be clear, Russia must not win this war militarily. So it’s up to us to see how to help the Ukrainians with their counter-offensive, and how to prepare the issue of security guarantees in the negotiations that will inevitably take place,” Mr Macron said.
“I’ve always said that in the end, Europe’s security architecture will have to fully defend Ukraine. But it must also envisage non-confrontation with Russia and rebuild a sustainable balance of forces,” he continued.
Zelensky said he was hopeful of securing a quick deal to get fighter jets from Western partners, after meeting British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday.
Zelensky confirmed the pair talked about the issue during a meeting at the prime minister’s country retreat northwest of London.
Afterwards he said he was “very positive” about creating a “jets coalition” for the war against Russia and that a decision would come “in the closest time”.
“You will hear some I think very important decisions,” he said in English but added that “a little bit more” work was needed until then.
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