The ongoing feud between the mercenary Wagner Group and the Russian military has plumbed new depths, according to UK intelligence.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is now striking an “unambiguously confrontational” tone with Moscow, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
Tensions between Prigozhin and his former ally Vladimir Putin have been simmering for months as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine.
Just last week, Prigozhin said his troops would not be signing special contracts drawn up by the Russian Ministry of Defence.
He said: “None of Wagner’s fighters is ready to go down the path of shame again. That’s why they will not sign the contracts.”
In their latest intelligence update on the war in Ukraine, the MoD said Prigozhin had retaliated by presenting Moscow with his own contract.
“Although the content of Prigozhin’s document has not been made public, the act of him delivering it raises the stakes, and is highly likely another deliberate effort to undermine the authority of the official military authorities,” they said.
“Prigozhin’s tone towards the MoD has become unambiguously confrontational. The MoD almost certainly sees this as deeply unfortunate at a time when it is grappling with Ukraine’s counter-offensive.”
As the Wagner Group’s military success became increasingly apparent, Prigozhin has become more and more outspoken when it comes to the Kremlin’s handling of the war in Ukraine.
He even accused Russian military chiefs of “treason” in February by denying his fighters adequate ammunition.
And in May that if the general Russian public kept seeing their children die in Ukraine while the children of he elite “shook their arses” in the sun, there would be a return to the 1917 revolution when the poor rebelled against the aristocracy.