The Russian army is retreating in several sectors of southern and eastern Ukraine, the leader of the paramilitary group Wagner said on Friday, contradicting the Kremlin’s assertions that the Kiev counter-offensive is a failure.
“The (Russian) army is retreating to the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson (south) areas, the Ukrainian armed forces are pushing,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin in a video interview published on Telegram by his press service.
“The same thing is happening in Bakhmout, the enemy will penetrate deeper and deeper into our defence,” the businessman added, referring to an eastern town that the Russians claim to have captured but where the Ukrainians say they have progressed on the flanks in recent weeks.
“There is no control, there are no military successes” from Moscow, again scathing Mr. Prigojine, affirming that the Russian soldiers “wash themselves with their blood”, a way of asserting that they suffer heavy losses.
Unverifiable from an independent source, the words of Wagner’s boss in any case contradict those of President Vladimir Putin and his Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, according to whom the Russian army “repels” all Ukrainian attacks.
In recent days, Mr. Putin has repeated that the Ukrainian counter-offensive was a failure and that the forces in kyiv had suffered near “catastrophic” losses. Thursday, Mr. Shoigu assured that the Ukrainian army was in the process of “regrouping” after having failed to break through the Russian defenses.
Mr. Prigojine described as “deep deception” the victorious declarations of the Russian Ministry of Defense, accusing the staff of “hiding” the difficulties and the Russian losses on the ground.
Proof, however, that the Ukrainian counter-offensive is taken very seriously by Moscow, Mr. Putin spoke several times in a few days on the situation on the battlefield, while he had tended in recent months not to comment in detail on what happened there.
While many opponents and anonymous Russians are in prison for criticizing the conflict in Ukraine, the leader of Wagner openly questioned on Friday the reasons for which the military intervention was launched.
“The war was necessary for a group of bastards to be promoted”, he castigated, also accusing “the Russian oligarchs” who “needed the war”, while Kyiv was according to him “ready to not any agreement”.