Sunday, June 25, 2023

Cracks

Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Wagner Group turns back from march on Moscow - The Washington Post
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Locals cheered as Wagner Group mercenaries left the headquarters of Russia's Southern Military District in the city of Rostov-on-Don on June 24. (Video: Reuters)

Live updates Wagner forces stand down; rebellion shows ‘cracks’ in Putin’s leadership, Blinken says

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Key updates
The leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, is expected to go to Belarus under a deal brokered by the Belarusian president, putting an end to a shocking, albeit short-lived, challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority. Prigozhin will not be prosecuted, a Kremlin spokesman said, adding that Wagner forces who did not join what Putin called a “rebellion” would be absorbed into the Russian Defense Ministry.
Key updates

Here’s what to know

  • Prigozhin’s forces, which have supplemented Russian troops in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, took control of a Russian military facility before marching toward Moscow early Saturday, coming within about 120 miles of the capital.
  • Prigozhin had called for Russians to join Wagner’s campaign late Friday after claiming that a Wagner camp in Ukraine had been attacked “from the rear” by Russia’s military. The Russian Defense Ministry denied the accusation, and state media suggested video of the strike had been staged.
  • It’s unlikely that the dust-up will have an impact on the battlefield, as there were few, if any, Wagner troops on the front lines, said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program. Wagner troops were “designed for offensive operations,” Lee said; Russia is now defending its occupied territories against a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
  • The incident has exposed deep fissures in Putin’s regime — particularly among members of Russia’s elite who may have agreed with Prigozhin’s increasingly vocal criticism of the war and how it was being run.
  • U.S. spy agencies this month picked up intelligence suggesting that Prigozhin was planning armed action against Russia’s defense establishment. The White House and officials in the Pentagon and the State Department, as well as leaders in Congress, were informed of the development, as instability from a “civil war” would be a concern to the United States, officials said.
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Prigozhin’s forces, which have supplemented Russian troops in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, took control of a Russian military facility before marching toward Moscow early Saturday, coming within about 120 miles of the capital.
Prigozhin had called for Russians to join Wagner’s campaign late Friday after claiming that a Wagner camp in Ukraine had been attacked “from the rear” by Russia’s military. The Russian Defense Ministry denied the accusation, and state media suggested video of the strike had been staged.
It’s unlikely that the dust-up will have an impact on the battlefield, as there were few, if any, Wagner troops on the front lines, said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program. Wagner troops were “designed for offensive operations,” Lee said; Russia is now defending its occupied territories against a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The incident has exposed deep fissures in Putin’s regime — particularly among members of Russia’s elite who may have agreed with Prigozhin’s increasingly vocal criticism of the war and how it was being run.
U.S. spy agencies this month picked up intelligence suggesting that Prigozhin was planning armed action against Russia’s defense establishment. The White House and officials in the Pentagon and the State Department, as well as leaders in Congress, were informed of the development, as instability from a “civil war” would be a concern to the United States, officials said.
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Prigozhin’s forces, which have supplemented Russian troops in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, took control of a Russian military facility before marching toward Moscow early Saturday, coming within about 120 miles of the capital.
Prigozhin had called for Russians to join Wagner’s campaign late Friday after claiming that a Wagner camp in Ukraine had been attacked “from the rear” by Russia’s military. The Russian Defense Ministry denied the accusation, and state media suggested video of the strike had been staged.
It’s unlikely that the dust-up will have an impact on the battlefield, as there were few, if any, Wagner troops on the front lines, said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program. Wagner troops were “designed for offensive operations,” Lee said; Russia is now defending its occupied territories against a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The incident has exposed deep fissures in Putin’s regime — particularly among members of Russia’s elite who may have agreed with Prigozhin’s increasingly vocal criticism of the war and how it was being run.
U.S. spy agencies this month picked up intelligence suggesting that Prigozhin was planning armed action against Russia’s defense establishment. The White House and officials in the Pentagon and the State Department, as well as leaders in Congress, were informed of the development, as instability from a “civil war” would be a concern to the United States, officials said.
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