Wagner Group owner publicly argues with Russian regular army over appropriation of victories

Evgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner PMC [Russian private military company – ed.], has said that his group of mercenaries are "constantly robbed of victories", alluding to the report of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation on the alleged capture of the Ukrainian city of Soledar.

Source: Prigozhin’s press service on Telegram

Quote: "Significant damage to Wagner PMC can be caused by our intraspecific struggle, corruption, bureaucracy and officials who want to remain in their seats. This is a more serious threat to the existence of Wagner PMC.

For example, recently the Russian mass media have been actively working to ban the phrase "Wagner PMC", not to pronounce it out loud and to avoid it like fire in every possible way.

Wagner PMC is constantly being robbed of victories; talks about the presence of hell knows who [alluding to Wagner mercenaries on the front – ed.] belittle their merits."

Details: On 13 January, the Russian Ministry of Defence suddenly announced the takeover of the city of Soledar.

The occupiers reported that they would not have been able to "capture" Soledar without "Airborne Forces units that carried out a covert manoeuvre, attacked the positions of the Ukrainian Forces, and blocked the city from the northern and southern sides."

The Russian Ministry of Defence also praised the efforts of occupying army’s aviation, rocket forces and artillery, which allegedly worked hard for the occupation of the city. 

It should be noted that Ukrainian defenders deny the information about the occupation of Soledar. Recently, commenting on the situation in the city, Serhii Cherevatyi, the spokesman of the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, noted that heavy battles are taking place in Soledar and that the Russians' information about the takeover of the city was false.

Russian, Western and Ukrainian mass media have repeatedly written that mercenaries and Russian prisoners who were recruited to the Wagner military group are trying to capture Soledar.

Ukrainian defenders also reported that Wagner mercenaries were fighting on the Bakhmut front and the city of Soledar, and littered the city with the corpses of their "brothers" without any mercy for their "cannon fodder".

According to Oleksii Reznikov, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, Wagner mercenaries are not just interested in capturing Soledar, they will try to "earn money on blood", because the largest salt mines in Europe are located there.

In addition, he says, Prigozhin "needs to provide some evidence to claim that they are better than the regular armed forces of the Russian Federation."

Soledar is about 10 kilometres from Bakhmut, a strategically important city where Ukrainian and Russian forces have been waging a war of attrition for several months.

Prigozhin made capturing Bakhmut his personal goal.

The capture of Bakhmut could pave the way for the Russians to advance on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Background: 

• On 11 January, Russia again changed the commander of the joint group of troops in Ukraine.
• So, Sergei Surovikin was dismissed from the position of commander of the Russian Armed Forces. Valerii Gerasimov, the Chief of the General Staff, was appointed to this position, while Surovikin became his deputy.
• The Ukrainian General Staff and the Ministry of Defence believe that such frequent rotations in the Russian army indicate problems in the management of troops.
• In particular, Oleksii Reznikov, Ukrainian Defence Minister, believes that the replacement of the commander of the Russian military in Ukraine indicates a conflict between the leadership of the regular Russian army and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC).
• Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, is convinced that there will be a power struggle between the Russian Armed Forces, the military formations of Yevgeny Prigozhin and Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as the new armed formation of the Russian security forces, and their confrontation will reach the centre of Moscow.

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