Fire against the mercenaries of the Wagner group. It was regular Russian forces, not Ukrainian soldiers, who fired on the militia of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private company. This is the new accusation launched by the former “Putin’s cook”, who condemned the action of a senior officer in the Russian army. Now the case has come to the table of the Minister of Defense and the Military High Command of Russia, Prigozhin’s sworn enemies.
Command initiated by a drunken commander
The tenth episode of the conflict between Prigozhin and Minister Sergey Shoigu, after the head of the mercenaries at Moscow’s military summits accused him of not providing ammunition and field support, and complained that the Russian army was laying mines on Moscow’s roads. Withdrawal from Bakhmut along the roads the Wagner militias were forced to withdraw on 20 May. Prigozhin’s list of accusations against the Russian regular forces grows longer, and the crimes against them become more and more serious.
The latest incident allegedly took place on May 17 near the village of Semiyhiria, not far from Bakhmut. On that day, the troops of the regular Russian army opened fire on the soldiers of the Wagner group: this was personally condemned by Prigozhin in a document published in Telegram. The head of the mercenaries said that he captured some soldiers from the Russian army, who allegedly opened fire on the militia from the private company on the orders of their commander, who at the time was “drunk”.
An attack in which the gangs responded to the fire of the Russian soldiers. The document states that the militia “taken retaliatory measures to thwart aggression and arrest military personnel of the Russian Ministry of Defense.” “The head of this group is an officer of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the commander of a motorized rifle brigade, a drunken lieutenant colonel.” The Russian officer in charge of everything has been identified as Commander of the 72nd Motor Rifle Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Roman Venevitin, and is now in the hands of mercenaries.
It would be the same officer who confirmed what had happened in a video where the soldier who was supposed to answer on behalf of Venevit appeared as a prisoner of war. In the video, the commander admits that he opened fire on Wagner’s men because of his “personal dislike” of Wagner, adding that he acted under the influence of alcohol. The man later pleaded guilty for ordering the shooting of the private company’s mercenaries. Prigozhin also said that the investigation into the events is ongoing, but many details have not yet been made public.
Prigozhin’s press service reported that PMC Wagner fighters engaged in combat with soldiers of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, and a drunken lieutenant colonel, apparently named Roman Venevitin, was detained. pic.twitter.com/6eWQUNwi75
— Daniele Angrisani (@putino) June 5, 2023
Russian Telegram channel Sirena makes it known that it has tracked down a soldier who responds to the exact name of Roman Venevit in the archives. The profile of the Russian commander is full of details. The 45-year-old man was working for a private security agency in Nizhny Novgorod before enlisting in the army and had his drunk driving license revoked ten years ago.
The case sat on the table of Minister Shoigu, who has so far denied Prigozhin’s accusations. But if the reconstruction of Wagner’s mercenaries had been real, an internal front could have opened for Russia’s captive forces just as Ukraine was launching its anticipated counteroffensive.
Intervention of Chechens to defend Belgorod
Meanwhile, Belgorod came under fire from pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters, who were wreaking havoc in Russia’s border region with Ukraine. It has been subjected to a series of bombings and raids in recent days; this is a fact that highlights the vulnerability of the Russian rearguard, especially in the context of the counterattack prepared by Kiev.
Therefore, the leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, proposes sending Chechen troops to the Belgorod region of Russia to “deal with the invading terrorists”, as did the commander of the Wagner mercenaries before him. “Special training and experience is required to remove militias from Russian soil without harming the civilian population or damaging infrastructure. It must be not just military but also counter-terrorism,” he wrote on his Telegram channel. exactly the skills that the Chechen forces have acquired on the ground. In the case of the best choice, the Commander-in-Chief will make the best choice.”
The Institute for War Studies (ISW) writes in its daily update on the war in Ukraine that Russia’s uncoordinated responses to the attacks in the Belgorod oblast show that the Russian leadership has not yet decided how to respond to the limited cross-border war. border raids ISW, “Contradictory reports from official Russian sources regarding the situation in the Belgorod oblast and the personal decision of the regional governor Gladkov to respond to the anti-Kremlin Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and the Russian Freedom Legion (LSR), the Ministry of Defense and Gladkov, on the raids doesn’t coordinate their responses.”
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
