Thread by @TheStudyofWar

#Wagner Group financier Yevgeny #Prigozhin is continuing efforts to exacerbate the divide between the #WagnerGroup and the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD). 🧵⬇️
isw.pub/UkrWar060523

https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1665897280107425792

2/ #Prigozhin’s press service published a video on June 4 showing a #Wagner fighter interrogating a Russian soldier who identified himself as Lieutenant Colonel Roman Venevitin of the 72nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (3rd Army Corps).

3/ Venevitin admitted on camera that he ordered his unit to fire on a #Wagner vehicle while intoxicated due to his own “personal animosity” towards Wagner and appeared to have sustained facial injuries during the time of his capture by Wagner.

4/ Prigozhin also claimed that Wagner personnel engaged in a small skirmish with Russian MoD personnel in Semihirya (15km southeast of Bakhmut) on May 17 after the MoD personnel fired on Wagner fighters when they tried to stop the MoD personnel from laying mines in Wagner’s rear.

5/ As ISW has previously assessed, #Prigozhin continues to inject such anti-MoD narratives into the Russian information space in order to retain his status in the info space following the culmination of #Wagner’s #Bakhmut offensive and Wagner’s withdrawal from combat in #Ukraine.

6/ The suggestion that units operating under the Russian MoD are actively firing on Wagner while intoxicated strengthens Prigozhin’s argument that the Russian MoD is a combat-ineffective and somewhat nefarious force. isw.pub/UkrWar060523