By Chris Muhizi Minembwe Capital News Monday June 4th/2023.
A Russian general has been detained by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary squad as the notorious leader intensifies his conflict with the regular army.
Lt Col Roman Venevitin, the leader of Russia’s 72nd Brigade, admits to ordering his troops to fire on a Wagner convoy while intoxicated in a video that was uploaded on Prigozhin’s social media platforms on Monday night.#the guardian says.
Venevitin apologized after saying he behaved out of “personal dislike” for Wagner in the video, which resembled prisoner of war military tapes.
Prigozhin, popularly known as “Putin’s chef” due to his catering agreements with the Kremlin, also asserted that his team had found explosives that he claimed had been deliberately put by defense ministry employees.
When his troops were retreating from the Bakhmut town in eastern Ukraine last week, Prigozhin said that the Russian army attempted to blow up his forces.
Prigozhin, who has been at odds with senior military figures for months, declared last week that his men had mostly withdrew from Bakhmut, which they had mainly taken last month after suffering significant casualties. Currently, it is thought that the Russian regular forces are in charge of the city.
The newest incident once more highlights the cracks in Moscow’s military apparatus. Additionally, it coincides with an uptick in combat near the frontlines in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia areas, raising the possibility that Kyiv has begun its eagerly awaited counteroffensive.
Since the start of the conflict, Prigozhin has been one of the most prominent leaders, routinely launching scathing tirades against the defense ministry on social media. His tumultuous ascension, though, has infuriated some Russian elites.
When two of Ramzan Kadyrov’s closest allies referred to Prigozhin last week as a “hysterical blogger” who harmed Russia’s military effort, they made a rare public critique of him.
Some nationalist pro-war commentators claimed that Wagner’s detention of a senior Russian soldier was evidence of Prigozhin’s expanding power within the Kremlin.