Indications from its military are of slight progress in the East, and readiness in the South. Its President, Volodymyr Zelensky, just completed a symbolic tour of allied European nations, including The Hague in the Netherlands, where he got to joke he wanted to see “the other Vladimir” answer to his indictment in that court. On the other side, Ukraine is, it seems, pressing on with its plan. What we know about the murky drone attack on the Kremlin - and the questions that remain From Social Media/Telegram/yakimanca/8750 The attack is alleged to have taken place in the early morning hours Wednesday, at an unspecified time. CNN is not yet able to establish the veracity of those videos. They are reacting, rolling, and stumbling forward as unhelpful events unfold.Ī screengrab taken from video that has circulated on Russian social media purporting to show the moment just before the detonation of a drone and smoke rising from the direction of the Kremlin. But these odd traces of disunity, or appalling security failings, do not support the concept of a president still executing a calm plan. It is unlikely that any fissures at the heart of the Kremlin would be made public before they were acted upon.
Putin is absorbing a lot of bad vibes at the moment to seem that much in control. An attack on the Kremlin, and the declaration that a private mercenary group will walk out on a key frontline, are not a good look – whatever the truth behind each situation. The bedrock of the President and his ministers’ hold on power is that they are the calm, controlled, ruthless masters of Russia’s geopolitical destiny – ensuring order in the storm. The Putin administration does not like appearing weak. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov could only admit he had read about Prigozhin’s declaration in the media and would not comment on it. Yet that is – at least publicly – not the case.
Ukrainian forces will be keen to exploit any chaos to target withdrawing Wagner troops, and also wary of becoming sucked into committing forces to retaking the city, at a time when their wider counteroffensive seems to be getting underway.įor weeks, it has seemed that Prigozhin’s long-running, public feud with the top brass in the Russian Ministry of Defense might have subsided. Withdrawal is a dangerous and complex operation at the best of times, and so on Wednesday, Wagner cannot simply hand the Airbnb keys over to Russian troops, and drive to the airport. Russian deserters have been shot on the frontline, repeatedly, according to multiple reports. Wagner forces would have to walk out of a battlefield which is – on the surface – for the most part controlled by Putin’s Ministry of Defense. Now, the key advocate of the operation says he will just walk away in five days. Both sides sent thousands of men to die in the fight. Wagner forces may constitute about half Russia’s presence around a city that has minimal strategic importance, but has gained huge symbolic weight since Moscow declared it a key objective last year. US rejects Russia's 'ludicrous claim' it was behind alleged attack on Kremlin as Moscow warns of 'open-armed conflict' But he has never said he will likely cripple one of Russia’s most symbolic frontlines by just walking away.Ī view of Kremlin after the drone attack in Moscow, Russia on May 03, 2023. He has also apparently been stymied from emptying out Russia’s prisons for new recruits, by the Russian Ministry of Defense employing convicts directly. He has stood before in front of the corpses of the Russian mercenaries and convicts he has launched at the frontline – without proper training or equipment – and demanded more ammunition. It is unclear whether Prigozhin hopes to leverage more weapons supplies, power, or money from these statements. And it will happen just after the May 9 Victory Day pomp and celebration, as, he insists, Wagner are patriots. He simply says it will happen, so they can “lick their wounds,” as they refuse to fight on senselessly without enough artillery shells to function. There is not even an “unless” attached to the threat. In just the past 48 hours, the Kremlin made a stark admission its seat of power in the heart of Moscow, was attacked by what it claimed were Ukrainian drones in a bid to assassinate President Vladimir Putin.Īnd then this morning, perhaps the most prominent figure in Russia’s military, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the self-promoting head of the private military company Wagner, used his Telegram account to say he will withdraw his forces from Bakhmut on May 10.
And you f**kers who aren’t giving ammunition, you b*tches, will have your guts eaten out in hell!” yelled Prigozhin in Thursday’s video. “These are someone’s f**king fathers and someone’s sons.
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