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Two of Putin’s top army lieutenants have “openly declared war” on the defense minister and staunch Putin loyalist Sergei Shoigu after a series of embarrassing defeats to the Kremlin in Ukraine.
Chechen boss Ramzan Kadyrov and founder of the Wagner “private army” or militia Yevgeny Prigozhin have turned against the minister over the past two weeks amid heavy defeats and losses. the guard reports.
It comes after Russia illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions, including Donetsk and Luhansk, in an announcement where he gathered all of the country’s top leaders and told the world that the regions would “be with Russia forever.”
But just 24 hours later, there was clear evidence that Ukraine was making big gains in the regions, retaking land that Putin had just claimed as part of Russia.
This week, gains in southern and eastern Ukraine continued, prompting the two army chiefs to openly “declare war” on the defense minister, who is an easy target to blame for the poor military results of Russia.
The Kremlin is taking increasingly desperate measures to save face and stop the Ukrainian advance, including recruiting prisoners straight from prison and, now, open infighting.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu speaks at a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday as prominent figures declared war on him and his department
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Putin’s private militia, or Wagner unit, has a long-standing feud with the defense minister.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the regional leader of Chechnya, was among those who visited Moscow and signed the treaties illegally annexing four Ukrainian regions on September 30.
“Putin is a very destructive personality, he will play the different factions apart and see what will be the best outcome,” a former Defense Ministry official told The Guardian.
“He doesn’t know how to mend relationships, so eventually someone will be the victim. Putin just wants to see what’s best for him and the war in Ukraine.”
The feud between Prigozhin and Shoigu is said to date back long before the start of the seven-month war in Ukraine and is said to have started after Prigozhin formed the Wagner unit during Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Former Wagner commander Marat Gabidullin told The Guardian: “In the current wave of patriotism, he wants to position himself as a fierce defender of the motherland who has established a professional military organization.
“He wants to show that he can fight better than the regular army. We always had tensions with the Ministry of Defense, we really didn’t like each other.’
Prigozhin is now said to have collaborated with Chechen leader Kadyrov in an attempt to oust the minister.
Kadyrov founded the republic of the North Caucasus in an effort to work closely with Putin, but in recent weeks has publicly turned against the defense ministry, becoming one of their staunchest critics.
He claims his soldiers were able to take Kiev “within days” even after the Russian army is driven back.
Shortly after last week’s Russian defeat at Lyman, a crucial railway junction in the Donetsk region, Kadyrov unleashed a devastating attack on the Russian General Staff and the Central Military District Commander Alexander Lapin.
In a series of posts on Telegram last week, the unlikely duo teamed up to launch devastating attacks on defense strategy.
“The shame is not that Lapin is incompetent,” Kadyrov wrote.
‘It is that he is shielded from above by the leadership of the General Staff.
“If it were up to me, I’d take him to a soldier, take his medals and send him to the front with a rifle to purge his shame with blood.”
“Military favoritism will lead nowhere,” he added.
Prigozhin added, “Good, Ramzan, keep it up. These punks should be shipped out barefoot with machine guns.”
Putin famously pits his subordinates against each other — a cunning strategy that prevents anyone from becoming too ambitious against him, but also creates bitter rivalries at a time when the nation is looking increasingly foolish on the national stage.
Russia must now resort to increasingly desperate tactics, including recruiting dangerous criminals directly from its prisons.
Images circulate on social media, in addition to interviews conducted by the guardshows that the Prigozhin himself visits prisons across the country and offers convicts freedom if they fight in Ukraine for six months.
They are said to receive only one week of training and are warned that they are unlikely to come back from the front lines.
The measures are being implemented against the background of increasingly embarrassing defeats for the Kremlin.
This morning, hours after Putin’s 70th birthday, Ukrainian saboteurs are said to have been behind a major explosion that destroyed part of the only bridge connecting Crimea to Russia – threatening the already stretched Russian supply and reinforcement lines.
Although Kiev has not claimed responsibility for the attack, a Ukrainian official boasted that “Putin should be happy. Not everyone gets such an expensive birthday present” – a reference to the Russian president’s 70th birthday yesterday.