REVEALED: Wagner chief offered to help UKRAINE by giving up Russian troop locations if Kyiv withdrew forces surrounding his fighters in Bakhmut, ‘Jack the Dripper’ Pentagon leaks say
- Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner mercenary force, made the offer in January in exchange for Kyiv to withdraw its forces around his fighters in Bakhmut
- The offer, which Ukraine rejected, was revealed this week, Washington Post reported, citing the leaked U.S. intelligence documents
- READ MORE: Fleeing Russian troops are blown up with their own weapon after abandoning anti-tank missiles as they try to escape Ukrainian forces
The head of the Wagner mercenary forces offered to help Ukraine by giving up Russian troop locations if Kyiv withdrew its forces from Bakhmut, leaked Pentagon documents suggest.
Yevgeny Prigozhin in January said he would tell the intelligence service the positions of Vladimir Putin’s soldiers, the Washington Post reported, citing the leaked ‘Jack the Dripper’ papers. Ukraine rejected the offer amid distrust of Prigozhin.
Prigozhin has repeatedly threatened to pull Wagner out of Bakhmut unless Russia’s regular armed forces send more ammunition. Last week, he said his troops were receiving only 10 percent of the shells they needed.
The leaked documents also revealed that in January Volodymyr Zelensky plotted to ‘conduct strikes in Russia’ while moving ground troops into enemy territory to ‘occupy unspecified Russian border cities’.
Prigozhin has repeatedly threatened to pull Wagner out of Bakhmut unless Russia’s armed forces send ammunition. He said his troops were receiving only 10% of the shells they needed
And in a February meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Yuliya Svrydenko, Zelensky suggested that Ukraine ‘blow up’ the Soviet-built Druzhba pipeline that provides oil to Hungary, the Post reported.
‘Zelenskyy highlighted that … Ukraine should just blow up the pipeline and destroy likely Hungarian [Prime Minister] Viktor Orban’s industry, which is based heavily on Russian oil,’ according to the document.
In an interview with the Post, Zelensky dismissed claims as ‘fantasies’ but defended his right to use unconventional tactics in the defense of his country.
‘Ukraine has every right to protect itself, and we are doing it. Ukraine did not occupy anyone, but vice versa,’ Zelensky said. ‘When so many people have died and there have been mass graves and our people have been tortured, I am sure that we have to use any tricks.’
Since last week, Wagner group boss Prigozhin has repeatedly threatened to pull his soldiers out of Bakhmut unless Russia’s regular armed forces send more ammunition.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Wagner private mercenary army, rages about the recent losses of Russian soldiers in Bakhmut
Mercenary chief ranks at the Russian military leadership as reports continue over Russian forces abandoning their frontlines
Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Donetsk region, May 3, 2023
Wagner’s soldiers have been at the forefront of a bloody Russian offensive to take the city of Bakhmut.
Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has publicly threatened to withdraw his mercenaries from the area around Bakhmut, where they are at the vanguard of the Russian offensive, unless they receive much-needed ammunition.
He said Tuesday in an audio message that he and his men would be regarded as traitors if they abandoned the area.
The Post reported Prigozhin’s offer came through his contacts with Ukraine’s intelligence service.
It was not made clear in the leaked document which Russian troop positions Prigozhin had offered to disclose.
But Kyiv rejected it because officials don’t trust Prigozhin and thought his proposals could have been disingenuous, the Post reported.
The report, which is based on secret U.S. documents leaked to the group-chat platform Discord, does not make clear which Russian troop positions Prigozhin offered to disclose.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the offer.
Last week, video footage captured the moment fleeing Russian troops were blown up with their own weapon as they tried to escape from the Ukraine frontline.
The giant explosion is thought to take out all but three of Putin’s men in the unknown location
Smoke rises after an explosion where a missile is fired at the escaping troops which appears to take out all but three of them
The battlefield video evidently films the strike by Ukrainians using one of the deadly weapons abandoned by Putin’s deserting soldiers.
A smoke trail is seen as the missile is fired at the escaping troops, followed by a giant explosion which appears to take out all but three of Putin’s men.
While the location of the strike is unknown, it is thought that the Russian forces were hit by one of their own Kornet man-portable anti-tank guided missiles which had been left behind and then seized and deployed by Kyiv’s forces.
It comes as reports continue to surface over Russians ceding hard-won ground and fleeing their positions in the fiercely contested bloody battleground of Bakhmut.
Pro-Kremlin Ukrainian blogger and politician Anatoly Shariy posted the footage to his one million plus Telegram subscribers, declaring: ‘This is what happens when the Russian army runs away, leaving Kornets behind.’
Since last week, Prigozhin has repeatedly threatened to pull Wagner out of Bakhmut unless Russia’s regular armed forces send more ammunition. In his latest remarks on Wednesday he said his troops were receiving only 10% of the shells they needed.
As well as clashing repeatedly with Russia’s defence ministry, Prigozhin has also expressed concerns about a long-promised Ukrainian counter-offensive to recapture some of the territory that Russia occupied after the 2022 invasion.
Source: Read Full Article