Members of the Wagner Group prepare to depart from the Southern Military District headquarters and return to their base on June 24, 2023 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
Fyodor Larin | Anadolu Agency | fake images
The chaos in Russia is working in Kiev’s favor, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday, but it remains to be seen whether President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his army can capitalize on the disorder caused this weekend when mercenaries marched on Moscow.
Late on Saturday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, one of the founders of Wagner’s army, said he would halt his “march for justice” in Moscow after a deal that prevented him and his mercenaries from facing criminal charges. The deal also exiled Prigozhin to Belarus.
“Today the world saw that the masters of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Just complete chaos,” Zelenskiy said in his late-night video address, urging Ukraine’s allies to seize the moment and send more weapons to kyiv.
The Prigozhin riots, the biggest domestic challenge to President Vladimir Putin as Russia’s supreme leader for 23 years, have sparked global security concerns and a frenzy of calls between Washington and its allies for coordinated action.
“Any chaos behind enemy lines is in our interests,” state news agency Ukrinform quoted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba as saying on Saturday.
Putin called Prigozhin’s actions a “blow to Russia” but there were no immediate signs his government was under threat. The Defense Ministry, under the command of Putin’s staunch ally Sergei Shoigu, remained silent during the events of the weekend.
Kuleba said it was too early to talk about the consequences for Ukraine, but later held a call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the events and Kiev’s counteroffensive efforts.
The US State Department said in a subsequent statement that Washington will remain “in close cooperation” with kyiv as the situation develops.
Ukraine’s army reported on Saturday an offensive near the villages surrounding Bakhmut, which was taken over by Wagner’s forces in May after months of fighting. kyiv also demanded the liberation of the Donetsk village of Krasnohorivka, but the gains were incremental.
The counteroffensive has generally been “slower than desired,” Zelenskiy said recently.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on Saturday there was no immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from the front to Moscow.
“They… all remain in their places. They continue their resistance,” Danilov was quoted as saying by Ukrainian state media.
