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BELFAST — A top British official said today it appears “cracks are emerging” in Russian zeal for the conflict in Ukraine, after the Russian mercenary group Wagner staged what appeared to be a brief uprising in the country over the weekend and effectively “publicly destroyed” Moscow’s reasoning for invading in the first place.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a speech to Parliament that the government could not “speculate” on what repercussions the actions by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin may have, but at the very least the Wagner’s aborted march on Moscow represented an “unprecedented challenge to President [Vladimir] Putin’s authority and it is clear that cracks are emerging in the Russian support for the war.”
He added, “We and our allies are asking [questions] about what situations may evolve as a direct repercussion of this very public attack on Putin’s authority by one of his protegees and closest allies.”
Likewise, US President Joe Biden told reporters today that it was “still too early to reach a definitive conclusion” as to the outcome of the feud between Prigozhin and Russia’s top military brass. Washington confirmed that it will “keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine.”
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, said during a Monday visit to Exercise Griffin Storm, Lithuania, the Wagner feud was “one more demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President Putin has made with his illegal war against Ukraine.”
In a surprising admission, Prigozhin said in recorded remarks that the war in Ukraine was caused by Russian elites who wanted to plunder the smaller nation. Cleverly told lawmakers that based on the fact that Russia’s leadership cannot justify the war “to each other,” Putin should withdraw his troops from Ukraine and “end this bloodshed.” Despite not wanting to speculate on how the UK will react to the Wagner dispute, he added that analysts in his department will “look at potential scenarios” and put mitigations in place, “if appropriate,” but failed to elaborate on any specific plans.
Regarding an unverified claim that Putin had fled the Kremlin to St. Petersberg as the Wagner Group approached Moscow, Cleverly stated only that “it is very difficult to get a clearer picture about the events on the ground.”
In a deal that deescalated Wagner’s uprising, Prigozhin allegedly agreed to move to Belarus. As for what he may get up to there, Cleverly said, “We will of course, keep a very, very close eye on reporting around the locations and activity of those Wagner fighters in Belarus.”
Cleverly explained that all this is happening in the background of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which has led to Kyiv “steadily” retaking territory.
In a larger sense, he reiterated the seriousness with which political reform inside the country has been taken will “ultimately see them [Ukraine] become a member of NATO.”
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