Weight gain. After heavy fighting in recent days, the Russian Wagner mercenary group claimed control of the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar on Wednesday, a claim immediately disputed by Kyiv.
“Wagner’s units have taken control of the entire territory of Soledar,” said group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. Photographed in the process with armed combatants, he assured that the snapshot had been taken in the city’s salt flats, information that is not verifiable as it is.
The growing importance of Wagner
In many ways, the capture of this town located halfway between Lyssytchansk and Donetsk has great symbolic importance. This breakthrough, if confirmed, would allow Moscow to finally brandish a military victory after several humiliating setbacks since last September, and Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to entrench his growing influence on the Russian political scene.
“I want to emphasize once again that no one except Wagner was involved in the Soledar storm,” he said.
Over the past few weeks, Yevgeny Prigokhine has continued to highlight the exploits of his men, even though military victories remain limited for the time being. “We have seen recently that Wagner is advancing at a faster rate than other units in the Russian military,” a US Defense Department official said on Friday.
It must be said that Wagner’s ranks grew throughout the conflict. Of late, Prigozhin himself has been recruiting new mercenaries directly from Russian prisons, offering them to join the ranks of the army for six months, in exchange for their freedom. Enlistment facilitated by a relaxation of the Russian law on the call up of reservists revised directly by Vladimir Putin.
In fact, the guardian specifies that to date, and according to the estimates of a Western intelligence official who remained anonymous, the Wagner group now represents at least a quarter of the Russian fighters mobilized on the Ukrainian front.
The administration as objective
Beyond the simple military aspect, Evgueni Prigojine also advances his pawns within the framework of internal wars that corrupt the mysteries of Russian power outside the Ukrainian conflict. As CNN recalls, he has on several occasions directly mocked Russian army personnel, whom he describes as corrupt and incompetent.
Among his main targets, the Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, with whom he would be, according to the US media, in a long fight. Disagreements even more exacerbated since the defeat at Kherson, which the Wagner leader directly imputes to the military command.
“Once we defeat our internal bureaucracy and corruption, then we will defeat the Ukrainians and NATO. The problem is that the bureaucrats and those who indulge in corruption no longer listen to us because for the New Year everyone drinks champagne ”, he had launched. like a wish
Once again, Prigojine does not hesitate in his differences to personally monopolize the advances of the Russian army in the east of the country.
“I created and run Wagner. Therefore, the responsibility for any success or failure rests with me,” he said, arguing that he is at the front while Shoigu remains in his Moscow offices.
On the international stage, Wagner’s motives are not hidden either. Since the first months of its creation in 2014, the presence of its mercenaries in Syria has been reported, where they have been accused of serious abuses. More recently, Wagner has apparently focused on Africa.
Source: BFM TV
