In the past ten days Yevgeniy Prigozhin, head of Russia’s Wagner private army, has posted videos attacking Russia’s defence establishment for not giving him enough ammunition, accusing Russian troops of fleeing from Bakhmut and accusing generals of lying about “collapsing” Russian lines. Yesterday the WaPo ran a splash based on April’s Pentagon leaks and subsequent reporting that said Prigozhin offered several times to reveal Russian troop positions to Ukraine’s armed forces if they would withdraw from Bakhmut, where his own troops were dying by the thousand. What gives? Kyiv is disinclined to trust him but the evidence that he’s been in touch with Ukrainian intelligence is compelling. Olga Lautman, a fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, sees a ruptured relationship with Putin and calls him a dead man walking.
Photograph Telegram