Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group warlord accused a military brigade of fleeing its position near Bakhmut, an allegation aired as Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw an annual Victory Day celebration.
“Today, one of the Russian Defense Ministry’s units ran from one of our flanks, abandoning its positions,” mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video released on social media, per media translations. “All of them fled, exposing a section of the front that was nearly two kilometers (1.25 miles) long and 500 meters (0.31 miles) deep. Luckily, we managed to seal it.”
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Ukrainian military officials endorsed that claim with a wry statement of gratitude “for the publicity of our success at the front.” For Prigozhin, the complaint continued a public feud with Russian military leaders, although his rhetoric suggested a growing willingness to test the boundaries of public criticism of Putin, as the man known as “Putin’s chef” derided the festivities.
“Congratulations on the Victory Day achieved by our grandfathers. But it’s a big question what we’re celebrating,” he said. “We just need to remember [our grandfathers] and that’s it. And not f*** around on Red Square.”
Putin used the annual commemoration of the end of the Second World War to reiterate his claim that his invasion of Ukraine continues a tradition of Russian opposition to Nazism.
“Today, our civilization is at a crucial turning point. … We are faithful to our ancestors’ legacy and have a deep and clear awareness of what it means to be up to the mark of their military, labor, and moral achievements,” Putin said. “My greetings to everyone who is fighting for Russia in the battlefield, who is now in the line of duty. Our heroic ancestors proved during the Great Patriotic War that nothing can beat our strong, powerful, and reliable unity. There is nothing stronger than our love for the motherland.”
Prigozhin’s acerbic denunciations of Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and his colleagues ran contrary to that display. “Instead of fighting, we constantly have all these intrigues,” he said. “We have a Ministry of Intrigue instead of a Ministry of Defense, and so our army is on the run.”
At one point, Prigozhin seemed even to dare to insult Putin himself through an elliptical reference to a “happy grandpa” putatively indifferent to ammunition shortages at the front lines.
“If he’s proven right, great,” Prigozhin said. “But what is the country supposed to do, what are our children, grandchildren supposed to do and how to win the war if we were to suddenly discover – let’s just hypothesize here -– that the grandpa is an absolute jerk?”
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That statement shocked many observers of Russian political life because Putin critics, such as imprisoned dissident Alexei Navalny, use “grandpa” as a derisive nickname for the Kremlin strongman.
“Either Putin responds and Prigozhin is toast or – if this doesn’t happen – a signal will be sent right through,” Dr. Sergey Radchenko, a Russian historian of the Cold War at Johns Hopkins University, tweeted. “A signal that the boss has been fatally weakened. And this is a system that does not respect weakness.”
