Wagner’s Prizoghin Disputes Report That He Provided to Betray Russia

The top of the Wagner personal navy group on Monday rejected a report that he had provided to share with Ukraine the positioning of Russian Military troops round Bakhmut in trade for a withdrawal of Kyiv’s forces from the world in japanese Ukraine.

The Wagner group has been a driving pressure behind Russia’s monthslong battle to take Bakhmut, which has price hundreds of lives on either side and diminished a lot of the town to rubble. Its founder, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, has publicly clashed with Russia’s navy management over the battle for the town, accusing them of ravenous his forces of ammunition.

The Washington Put up reported on Sunday {that a} U.S. intelligence doc leaked on the messaging platform Discord stated that Mr. Prigozhin instructed contacts in Ukraine’s navy intelligence directorate that he was keen to betray the Russian military’s areas round Bakhmut if Kyiv agreed to withdraw from round Bakhmut. A Ukrainian official instructed The Put up that Mr. Prigozhin’s provide — made “greater than as soon as” — had been rejected.

In an audio assertion printed on Monday by his press service, Mr. Prigozhin referred to as the report “hypothesis” and a “hoax.” He steered that Russia’s corrupt elites, who he stated envied his fighters’ achievements on the entrance traces in Ukraine and have been desperate to tank his status, might be accountable.

Mr. Prigozhin’s mercenaries have taken lead in making an attempt to seize Bakhmut, the positioning of the longest and one of many bloodiest battles of the battle, whereas Russian troops have managed the world across the metropolis’s flanks. Over the previous few weeks, Mr. Prigozhin has stepped up his accusations of incompetence in opposition to the Russian navy management.

Regardless of overtly feuding with prime Russian officers, Mr. Prigozhin has been cautious to not criticize President Vladimir V. Putin.

Dmitri S. Peskov, the spokesman for Mr. Putin, stated that he wouldn’t touch upon The Put up’s report, however stated that “it appears to be like like one other hoax.”