A Russian navy blogger visited a Wagner base shortly earlier than it was allegedly the goal of a shelling assault, which Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin has blamed on the Russian Ministry of Defence (MOD), though which the MOD has denied.
On the night of June 23, a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel posted the next message, which was soon-after shared by Prigozhin on his private Telegram channel: “A missile assault was carried out on a PMC Wagner base. There are various casualties. In accordance with the data of the fighters who’re witnesses, the assault was carried out from a rear route – that’s, it was carried out by troopers of the Russian Ministry of Defence.”
The video shared by the Wagner channel reveals panicked males going by way of a forested base, finally reaching an space with broken timber, lingering fires, and an obvious corpse. It’s as but unclear if this footage reveals the aftermath of a real assault or if it was staged.
The identical camp was in a video posted on Telegram by Russian struggle correspondent Aleksandr Simonov the day earlier than the alleged assault. Simonov is commonly embedded with Wagner items and posts movies from their positions and operations on his Telegram channel. It’s unclear how a lot time handed between Simonov’s go to to the bottom and the submit on Telegram exhibiting it.
Simonov introduces the video as a go to to a rear Wagner base the place fighters await their orders. The positioning is presumably in occupied territory of Ukraine given trenches and underground sleeping quarters could be seen. Because the video unfolds, Wagner fighters stroll Simonov by way of the bottom finally taking him to a clearing the place troopers are participating in goal observe.
Options in each movies present that they’re in the identical location, together with a bench close to a path, a fuel masks, and gadgets alongside the facet of the identical distinct path.
The situation of this Wagner base remains to be unclear, however the contents of each the Wagner and Simonov movies indicate that it’s positioned inside occupied Ukrainian territory given shelter has been sought in a wooded space and makeshift underground sleeping quarters could be seen.
Prigozhin has adopted up with additional Telegram posts insulting Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, and calling for motion towards the Russian Ministry of Defence, asking “whoever needs” to assist him “put an finish to this shame”. The Russian Ministry of Defence has denied Prigozhin’s accusations, and referred to as it an “informational provocation”.
Michael Sheldon contributed to this report.
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