The chief of the Wagner mercenary group has alleged that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is lying to President Vladimir Putin about “colossal” battlefield failures in Ukraine.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, an outspoken critic of the Russian military, said Shoigu does not tell Putin about the “thousands of destroyed tanks and armored vehicles” littering the streets of the embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
He claimed that Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian army, are bringing “total c**p” to Putin’s desk and refusing to tell the despot that there are “colossal problems” in Bakhmut.
Russia has repeatedly claimed that the Kiev counter-offensive has “failed” and that Russian forces have inflicted heavy casualties on Ukrainian forces.
But retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, a former commander of US Army Europe, said any reports that Ukrainian troops are “failing” on the battlefield and have been forced to abandon their counteroffensive are “utter nonsense.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, an outspoken critic of the Russian military and its commanders, said Shoigu is not telling Putin about the “thousands of destroyed tanks and armored vehicles” littering the streets of the embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Ukrainian artillery batteries fire on the frontline as clashes continue near villages recaptured by the Ukrainian army in Donetsk, Ukraine, on June 21
Prigozhin has claimed that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (pictured in the Kremlin on June 21) is lying to President Vladimir Putin about “colossal” battlefield failures in Ukraine
Hodges pointed out how Supreme Commander General Vallerii Zaluzhnyi “has been very disciplined in protecting information from the very beginning” from the front lines of any success on the battlefield.
And so, when I read reports that said this [Ukrainian counteroffensive] is a failure, they have to stop – this is utter nonsense,” Hodges said News week.
“Because you can’t explain failure any more than you could explain from what we can see,” the former commander explained.
Prigozhin, whose mercenaries fought for months in Bakhmut on behalf of the Kremlin, also rejected Russia’s claims that the army had inflicted heavy casualties and that the Ukrainian counter-offensive failed.
The Wagner boss said his claims about the Ukrainian advance in the Zaporizhzhia region have not been reflected by Russia’s defense ministry or the Kremlin because Shoigu is lying to Putin about Russia’s “colossal” failures on the battlefield.
‘I’ll explain why [my words] differences [from the official data],” Prigozhin said in an audio message News week. ‘Cause they bring total c**p to the president’s desk, [it’s] shameless.
“When we took Bakhmut, we let all the military correspondents go there, you remember this well, so that they see the real state of affairs. No one is talking about the thousands of destroyed tanks and armored vehicles.
“They don’t let anyone in [in Bakhmut]they don’t show anything, precisely because there are colossal problems there.’
Prigozhin added: ‘Shoigu and Gerasimov have a simple approach: a lie must be monstrous to be believed. This is what they do.’
Prigozhin’s latest diatribe came after he denounced claims by Russia’s defense ministry that it had killed 1,500 Kiev soldiers in two days in the embattled city of Bakhmut as “absurd science fiction.”
Ukrainian artillerymen blow up Russian 2S1 Gvozdika howitzer in massive blast in Ukraine in undated footage. The footage was released by the 40th Artillery Brigades on Wednesday
A Ukrainian MSLR BM-21 “Grad” fires at Russian positions, near Bakhmut on the frontline in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, on June 21
Prigozhin claimed that Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian army, are bringing “total c**p” to Putin’s desk and refusing to tell the despot that there are “colossal problems” in Bakhmut.
Russia’s defense ministry had claimed earlier this month that Russian forces had repelled two major offensives in southern Donetsk.
It claimed to have killed 1,500 troops and destroyed military equipment, eight Leopard tanks supplied to Ukraine by its Western allies, and 109 armored vehicles, among other things.
“After suffering heavy losses the day before, the Kiev regime reorganized the remnants of the 23rd and 31st Mechanized Brigades into separate consolidated units, which continued offensive operations,” the ministry said on Telegram.
“A complex fire defeat was inflicted by army forces, assault and operational-tactical aviation, missile forces and artillery, as well as heavy flamethrower systems.”
But this was soon and very openly questioned by Prigozhin, who has repeatedly criticized senior officials in the Kremlin, the Russian military and Vladimir Putin himself for alleged missteps in the war effort.
In comments published on his press service’s Telegram channel, the 61-year-old said to kill many Ukrainian troops would need daily gains of 150 km (93 mi).
“I therefore believe that this is just wild and absurd science fiction,” said Prigozhin.
Adding up the ministry’s numbers would imply that “we’ve already destroyed the entire planet five times,” he added sarcastically.
And last week, Prigozhin resisted an attempt by Shoigu to take control of his ranks. The Wagner chief said his fighters would not sign any contracts with the defense minister, publicly defying apparent efforts to curb his influence.
Prigozhin has repeatedly attacked Shoigu for what he considers treachery, criticizing him for not conducting the war in Ukraine well and taunting him for coming to the front lines.
Tensions with Moscow rose when mercenaries kidnapped a front-line Russian general earlier this week, who admitted to being drunk on duty in a humiliating video after allegedly firing at a Wagner vehicle.
Russian Lieutenant Colonel Roman Venevitin claimed that Wagner troops, believed to be on Russia’s side in the war, kidnapped Russian soldiers before torture and rape them.
A video later emerged of the general, Roman Venevitin, accusing Wagner of torturing Putin’s soldiers and Prigozhin of discrediting the military – a crime for which he could be imprisoned.
In the video from earlier this month, which was allegedly orchestrated by Russian military leaders after Venevitin was released, Venevitin said of Prigozhin, “You are engaged in actively discrediting the Russian armed forces.
‘I [am speaking] to convey the truth about what happened to the Russian public, to tell some facts about the so-called Wagner,” he said. “Honor demands that I do this.”
This claim, which Venevitin appears to be reading from a script, indicates that authorities are trying to dissuade Prigozhin, who dismissed allegations of his troops’ violence against Russian ranks as “absolute nonsense.”
Russia’s defense ministry has since urged all “volunteer detachments” to sign contracts with the defense ministry by the end of the month, a move the ministry said would increase the effectiveness of the Russian military.
Although the ministry did not name Wagner in its public statement, Russian media reported that it was an attempt by Shoigu to push the mercenaries to their limits.