“The ideal option would be to announce the end of the conflict, to inform everyone that Russia has achieved the expected results and, in a sense, we have indeed achieved them.” The head of Wagner stated in a statement Yevgeny Prigozhinreports The Kyiv Independent, recommending Moscow to “root firmly” in the occupied territories.
Prigozhin it is creating the conditions to exploit a possible Russian military failure whether the expected Ukrainian counter-offensive will be successful, the US think tank Isw (Institute for the study of the war) writes in its latest report, reporting Prigozhin’s speech. Prigozhin said that “the upcoming Ukrainian counter-offensive is more likely to succeed than fail.” And he warned that a selfish Russian “deep state” (which he defines as “a community of state-friendly elites who operate independently of political leadership and have close ties and their own agenda”) is currently in crisis due to military failures. of the Federation in ensuring a quick victory. Prigozhin accused members of this deep state embedded in the Russian bureaucracy of deliberately sabotaging Russia’s success in the war as they seek to resume their privileged and comfortable lives. He then said that these “internal enemies” of the Russian deep state would push the Kremlin to “make serious concessions”, which amounted to “betraying Russian interests”, including the possibility of returning occupied Ukrainian territory to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, Wagner shock troops have captured two neighborhoods on the northern and southern outskirts of Bakhmut (Artyomovsk in Russian). This was reported by Russian state news agencies. Heavy fighting has also been going on in the vicinity of the Donetsk city which has been the scene of bloody clashes for months. According to the ministry’s statement, “the Ukrainian troops remaining in Bakhmut are destroying infrastructure and residential blocks as they withdraw”.
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