Wagner founder challenges Zelensky to a dogfight
Prigozhin offered to duel the Ukrainian president ‘in the skies’ as forces brace for next Russian offensive
THE FOUNDER of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group last night challenged Volodymyr Zelensky to a dogfight for control of Bakhmut, as Ukraine braced for a renewed Russian offensive.
Yevgeny Prigozhin threw down the gauntlet to the Ukrainian leader in a bizarre video from the cockpit of an SU-24 fighter-bomber, claiming he had just flown a night sortie over the town in the eastern Donbas region.
“Volodymyr Oleksandrovych [Zelensky], we have landed. We have bombed Bakhmut,” he said. “I will fly a MIG-29. If you so desire, let’s meet in the skies. If you win, you take Artemivsk [Bakhmut’s Soviet-era name]. If not, we advance till [the river] Dnipro.”
The battle of Bakhmut is fast approaching a tipping point, with Russia throwing fresh waves of troops into the assault on the Donetsk city. With the Russian efforts appearing to be focused on Bakhmut, Kyiv has warned it is preparing for a large-scale offensive by Moscow in a bid to regain the initiative.
In recent months, Mr Prigozhin has sought to promote his image publicly as part of a rumoured attempt to replace Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister. Despite his boast, Moscow has been unable to fully capture Bakhmut, with Ukrainian forces still repelling multiple attacks on smaller settlements sur- rounding the town. Mercenaries from Mr Prigozhin’s Wagner Group have spearheaded a brutal eight-month-long effort to capture Bakhmut, a town with little military significance.
But in recent weeks, regular, welltrained Russian troops have been brought in to lead what could be the final charge for the city, a blow to Mr Prigozhin’s standing with the Kremlin.
Ukraine’s general staff yesterday said that “there is a complete lack of coordination and interaction” between the Russian military and Mr Prigozhin’s mercenaries.
“There are already many reports that the occupiers want to do something symbolic in February,” the Ukrainian president said late on Sunday, hinting at a Russian offensive in time for the first anniversary of the invasion.
An unnamed adviser to the Ukrainian military told the Financial Times that Kyiv had “very solid intelligence of intent” by Russia to launch the attack within 10 days.
Yesterday, Maj Gen Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy head of Ukrainian military intelligence, said: “We have determined that Russian troops may attack in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and possibly in Zaporizhzhia.”