Multiple blasts across Kyiv, according to the city’s mayor, as Russia launches another wave of attacks with explosions in Odesa and Kherson reported
Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov “likely effectively blackmailed” Russia’s Ministry of Defence into allocating Wagner more resources, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest assessment of the conflict.
The US-based think tank writes:
Kadyrov published a letter on May 6 asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to order Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Director of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvadia) Viktor Zolotov to authorize the transfer of Chechen “Akhmat” units from “other directions” to assume Wagner’s positions in the Bakhmut direction.
Kadyrov’s letter to Putin bypassed the Russian chain of command, and the withdrawal of Chechen forces from other parts of the theater likely posed a risk to Russian defensive lines, a risk that [Army General Valery] Gerasimov and Shoigu, or Putin, appear to have been unwilling to take.
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