By Chris Muhizi for Minembwe Capital News Thursday June 29th/2023.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group’s mutiny, and its implications for Vladimir Putin and the course of the war in Ukraine are the center of attention in the Ukrainian capital.
The drama at the Russian border has made Kiev more convinced that Mr. Putin’s tenure as president of Russia is coming to an end.
The closest advisor to President Zelensky, Andriy Yermak, declared, “I think the countdown has started.”
He remembered the year when Russia initially attacked Ukraine and annexed the Crimean Peninsula during a briefing in Kyiv.
“What Ukraine has seen since 2014 has become evident for the entire world,” Mr. Yermak remarked.
“This [Russia] is a terrorist nation led by a deficient individual who has lost touch with reality. The world must come to the conclusion that there is no way to have a serious relationship with that nation.
Senior Ukrainian officials unanimously believed that President Putin could not survive a catastrophic loss of power in interviews with the BBC here in Kyiv.
They claimed that his regrettable choice to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of last year was the catalyst for it. They claimed that Mr. Putin’s chances of remaining in power had been eliminated by the Wagner mutiny and Mr. Prigozhin’s criticism of the Kremlin’s rationale for the war.
One of them believed that “the Putin regime cannot be saved.”
It is crucial to keep in mind that anything Ukrainians, particularly those in power, say about their adversaries in Russia is said in the midst of a conflict that they accurately perceive as a war for the existence of their country.
The Ukrainians have waged a cunning media campaign, and they are astonishingly consistent in the narratives they convey to their own people, their supporters in the West, as well as their adversaries .
He is unquestionably up against the biggest threat to his authority since he took office in 2000.
Other top government officials in Kiev claim to be sure that Mr. Putin is being opposed by covert but organized networks of disgruntled insiders.
Oleksiy Danilov, the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine’s secretary, said to the BBC from his office: “Prigozhin is not the most senior. They may evolve into the new political elite.
Security personnel, government leaders, and billionaires, according to Mr. Danilov, believe that Mr. Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine fully in February of last year has been both a personal disaster for them and a danger to Russia.
Mr. Putin argued that the autocratic, top-down system he had constructed was being replaced by a near-power vacuum.
Another top official, who requested anonymity, went even farther, saying that President Putin might be obliged to fire both his chief of staff, General Valery Gerasimov, and defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, in the event of yet another military defeat.
Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner mutineers made firing the two guys one of their main demands.
“Prigozhin will get what he wanted,” the official said. His political career is not over. He will leave Belarus’ exile quickly.
Source: BBC
