The leader of the controversial Wagner mercenary brigade who is currently butting heads with Vladimir Putin allegedly offered to reveal Russian military positions in exchange for his army being spared.
The Wagner Group, led by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin and made up of contractors and recruited convicts, has been fighting alongside Russian armed forces in areas of eastern Ukraine.
However, Prigozhin has been openly criticising Putin of late, most recently going into a rage after ammunition he and his fighters were promised by the Russian Government didn't arrive.
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And now, leaked intelligence documents apparently reveal that Prigozhin offered to sell out the locations of Russian troops to Ukrainian officials in return for battlefield favours.
The Washington Post reported that US military intelligence documents allegedly shared on a Discord server by Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old airman at a National Guard unit in Massachusetts, included a briefing on a January meeting between Prigozhin and Ukrainian officials.
The deal was that if Ukrainian units pulled back from the frontline in Bakhmut, Prigozhin would offer the locations of Russian troops and move aside as Zelenskyy's men ambushed.
However, reports suggested, Kyiv declined his offers as Ukrainians officials were sceptical of his motives.
As well as suggesting that Putin was behind the desperate shortages of arms and ammunition that were crippling Russia’s army, Prigozhin has also accused fellow fired commanders of deserting the front line, leaving his Wagner fighters dangerously exposed to flanking attacks by the Ukrainians.
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Prigozhin's criticism of rival commanders is nothing new – he has a well-publicised feud with Russia’s minister of defence, Sergei Shoigu – but he went further than ever before in what seemed to be direct criticism of Putin.
“The shells are lying in warehouses, they are resting there,” he said. “Why are the shells lying in the warehouses?
“There are people who fight, and there are people who have learned once in their lives that there must be a reserve, and they save, save, save those reserves. …
“No one knows what for. Instead of spending a shell to kill the enemy, they kill our soldiers. And happy grandfather thinks this is okay.”
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