THE head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force offered to reveal the locations of Russian forces to Ukraine, leaked US intelligence documents claim.
Ukraine rejected the astonishing offer when it was made in January by Yevgeny Prigozhin, 61, as part of a quid pro quo deal with Kyiv, a Washington Post report says.
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Under the proposed deal, the Wagner boss offered to leak information on the positions held by Vladimir Putin’s troops if Ukraine’s commanders withdrew their own forces from the area surrounding the fortress city of Bakhmut, which would give Prigozhin a victory there in exchange for the opportunity to accurately hit Russian positions elsewhere on the frontline.
The offer was made via his contacts in Ukraine’s intelligence service, according to the documents.
The leak did not set out which Russian positions the Wagner chief was offering to disclose to Ukraine.
Prigozhin, who is a close ally of the Russian President, has on numerous occasions threatened publicly to withdraw his mercenary force from the area around Bakhmut, which is in the frontline of the Russian offensive, as he sought to gain more ammunition from Moscow.
Prigozhin has dismissed the report on Monday as “nonsense” in an audio recording released on Telegram and blamed them on unnamed residents in Moscow’s posh Rublyovka suburb, which is a byword for Russia’s business and political elites.
The Kremlin has also rejected the report, saying it was “looking like a hoax”.
The White House has declined to comment on the issue.
Two unnamed Ukrainian officials were cited in the Washington Post report, saying Prigozhin had contacted the Ukrainian intelligence directorate, known as HUR, several times during the Ukraine war.
One of the officials claimed that Prigozhin had extended the offer on Bakhmut more than once, but Kyiv had repeatedly rejected it due to a lack of trust in the Russian leaders and the proposals were considered to be disingenuous.
Those doubts were also shared by Washington, according to the sources in the US and Ukraine cited in the report.
A wave of concern in the Russian defence ministry has been sparked over Prigozhin’s constant criticism as they consider how to respond over his issues about military performance and demands for more resources, other leaked documents reveal.
The Russian defence ministry has conceded Prigozhin’s grievances are not illegitimate.
The leaked documents also hint at a power struggle between Prigozhin and senior Russian officials, including Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister.
Earlier this month, Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov the Russian chief of staff, were directly abused by Prigozhin after losing more than 30 soldiers in a day.
One document reveals the Wagner boss leaked information on the Russian military’s struggles with ammunition supplies to a Ukrainian intelligence officer.
Responding to the newspaper report, Prigozhin denied meeting Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, in an unnamed African country, claiming he had not been in the continent since the start of the Ukraine conflict and portrayed the idea of a phone call with him was laughable.
Prigozhin also advised Ukrainian troops to go ahead with an assault on the Crimean border when morale among Russian forces was low.
The report also indicated Prigozhin was aware of plummeting morale within his own Wagner force.
Some of his fighters were said to have baulked at orders to deploy the Bakhmut area under fire for suffering more casualties, the Post report said.
Fighting in Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, has been at the heart of the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since the Second World War, with the battle for the salt mining town raging for 10 months now.
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