Russia Victimized by its Military Incompetence

"Today I have sent letters to the investigative Committee and the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation with a request to check on the fact of the commission of a crime during the preparation and during the conduct of the SMO [Special Military Operation] by a host of senior functionaries of the Defence Ministry."

"These letters will not be published due to the fact that the investigative authorities will deal with this."

Yevgeny Prigozhin, Chief, Wagner Group

An image taken from a video posted online by the Prigozhin Press Service on May 5, 2023, shows the head of Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, standing by bodies in an unknown location as he addresses the camera. The owner of Russia's private military company Wagner, Prigozhin, said he would pull Wagner forces from the battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on May 10, accusing Russia's military command of starving the group of ammunition. Prigozhin Press Service via AP

Russia's unpreparedness for Ukraine's aggressive and hugely effective military reaction to Moscow's invasion of its neighbour has the Kremlin and President Putin on their back foot, embarrassed by their own vulnerability in facing drone incursions into the heart of Moscow, over the Kremlin, targeting the areas where the elite of Russian corporate interests live in their mansions. The ability of a suspected Ukraine offensive to hit Russian border towns and energy and munitions storage depots is bringing home to Russia that they are as likely to suffer the extremes of conflict as what they have imposed upon Ukraine.

The bad-tempered complainant and vociferous critic of the Russian military who has been careful not to criticize Vladimir Putin, his dear friend for whom he has boundless admiration, has turned his sights once again on the Russian top military, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, both of whom Yevgeny Prigozhin detests, claiming they are jealous of the successes gained by his Wagner Group, withholding badly needed weaponry in their nefarious plan to have Wagner mercenaries suffer losses from the Ukrainian military's defenses, while the Russian military gains control and prevails.

Now the most public challenge against the top military brass has been lodged front and centre for prosecutors to investigate crimes committee by the senior Russian defence officials, prior to or throughout the Ukraine war. Prigozhin's vendetta-laden accusations against the two senior leaders for their poor performance, for ignoring his demands for weapons supplies, for alleged treachery is the culmination of his months-long insults and charges of incompetence and stupidity in the prosecution of the conflict and their responsibility in the massive Russian death count of both the military and the Wagner mercenaries.

EPA-EFE/Sergey Kozlov

 

Prigozhin's outrageous charges and his hysterical performances represent an embarrassment to Moscow, which appears never to have responded to any of his charges. He has never launched a challenge against President Putin, and he has high popularity among those Russians dissatisfied with the Russian military role in the conflict imposed upon Ukraine. Their dismay at the losses in the conduct of the war, from war blogger buffs and influential oligarchs to the vast public whose sons have been killed through inept strategies, support the former restaurateur-turned-mercenary chief.

Ukrainian artillery hit a Russian town for a third time, with drones striking two oil refineries, as attacks on Russian territory gain traction. Ukraine bring the war that Russia brought to Ukraine, right back to Russia. Which seems reasonable enough, despite Moscow fuming that such attacks represent terrorist war crimes. Russian citizens are being wounded in their own towns, shells damaging apartments, homes and schools and power lines and industrial facilities. Details quite familiar to Ukrainians living in towns and cities across the vast territory of Ukraine.

Both Ukraine and Russia have committed to targeting each other's forces and military equipment building up to the anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in weeks or days to come. In eastern Ukraine its general staff described Ukrainian forces fending off 22 Russian attacks in one day alone, when Ukrainian aircraft carried out 11 strikes on Russian personnel and military equipment.

Ukrainian service members from a 110th Separate Mechanis\zed Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, prepare fire a self-propelled howitzer "Dana", amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine. Photo by Sofiia Gatilova/REUTERS

 

"This duality [inequality between the elite and the ordinary Russian citizen] may end like it did in 1917, with a revolution, when first the soldiers rise up, and after that their loved ones do."

"[Russian citizens could raid the elites' homes with] pitchforks… and don't think there are hundreds of them, now there are now tens of thousands of relatives of those killed, and there will probably be hundreds of thousands."

"We stormed in an aggressive manner and stomped our boots all over Ukraine while looking for Nazis. We approached Kyiv, s**t our pants, and retreated. Next onto Kherson, where we also s**t our pants and retreated, and nothing seems to be working out for us."

"There are optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. The optimistic one, which I don't really believe in, is that Europe and America will get tired of the Ukrainian conflict, then China will put everyone at the negotiating table."

"We will agree that everything that we have already seized is ours, and everything that has not been seized is not ours. It is unlikely that this scenario is possible."

Yevgeny Prigozhin