The commander of the Wagner Group mercenaries harassed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu again. On Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin published a letter on the Telegram channel in which he vented his dislike of the actions at the front undertaken by soldiers of the Russian army. Wagnerowiec accuses the Russian military of abandoning their positions in Bakhmut “without a fight”.
The head of the mercenary army and founder of a semi-legal militant group backed by the Kremlin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is at war with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. This time, he took advantage of the situation in Bakhmut, where heavy fighting has been going on for many months.
The press service of the Wagner Group published Prigozhin’s letter to Minister Shoigu on Friday. It was written the day before, on Thursday.
“Taking into account the difficult operational situation, as well as your many years of combat experience, I am asking you to come to the territory of Bakhmut, which is under the control of the paramilitary units of the Russian Federation, and to independently assess the current situation,” Prigozhin wrote to Shoigu.
Prigozhin also wrote that it was the mercenaries who carried the entire burden of this skirmish. According to his assessment, they currently control more than 95 percent. Bakhmut and continue the offensive on the flanks, which should be guarded by regular units of the Russian army. There, as the Wagnerian fought torment, due to the lack of cannon of regular forces, “the enemy made a number of successful counterattacks”. He accused soldiers subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Defense of leaving their positions “without a fight”.
This is another clash between the head of the Wagner Group and the official military command. A few days ago, Prigozhin published a video in which he was angry and cursed at the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry. He demanded supplies of ammunition to the Wagnerians. He threatened to have his people leave Bakhmut.
As the outlawed Russian news channel Meduza recalls, on Victory Day Prigozhin made a daring attack on the country’s tallest person. He mentioned a certain “happy grandfather” – a person who influenced the fate of Russia. He suggests that the man who “thinks he’s fine” may turn out to be a “total asshole.” Meduza puts the matter firmly and points out that, according to many assessments, these words were about Vladimir Putin.
Meduza reports that the Kremlin has already ordered state media to stigmatize Prigozhin for his attacks on the authorities and declare him a “traitor to Russia” if he continues to criticize the country’s top officials.
The 61-year-old head of the Wagner Group is a good friend of Vladimir Putin. The president allows him not only to conduct unethical military activities in various regions of the world, but also to disregard words.