Prigozhin may attack Kyiv from Belarus (Image: Getty)
Despite the radically destabilising impact of the Wagner Group’s attempted coup yesterday, it may not spell victory for Ukraine in their ongoing conflict against Russia, after a top British military chief warned that hardened mercenaries may now attack Kyiv from Belarus.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner, was yesterday exiled to Belarus as part of a deal to end his insurrection against the Kremlin.
Former chief of the UK General Staff Lord Dannatt warned that if Prigozhin has taken his forces with him to Belarus, Kyiv may be in grave peril.
Lord Dannatt told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “Apparently he’s left the stage to go to Belarus but is that the end of Prigozhin and the Wagner Group? The fact that he’s gone to Belarus is I think a matter of some concern.
“What we don’t know, what we will discover in the next hours and days is… how many of his fighters have actually gone with him.
“If he has gone to Belarus and has kept an effective fighting force around him, he then presents a threat again to the Ukrainian flank closest to Kyiv which is where all this began on February 24 last year.
“Although it would appear that this matter is closed I think it is far from closed and the aftershocks will reverberate for quite some time.
“They (Ukraine) need to watch that flank very carefully and make sure they have got some manoeuvre units such that they could repel a renewed attack from the direction of Belarus.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin speaking on social media prior to being exiled (Image: Getty)
Kyiv may be threatened by Wagner troops attacking from Belarus, according to Lord Dannatt (Image: Getty)
Despite it remaining unclear how many troops Prigozhin was able to take with him to Belarus, part of the deal to end the coup included Wagner fighters being subsumed into the Russian army.
After calling off the mutiny, Prigozhin said: “In 24 hours we reached within 200km of Moscow. Over that time we didn’t shed a single drop of our men’s blood.
“Now though the time has come when blood might be shed. Therefore, mindful of the responsibility that Russian blood might be shed by one of the parties, we are turning our columns round and moving off in the opposite direction, to the field camps, according to plan.”
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Zelensky used the mutiny to attack Putin (Image: Getty)
Following the start of the insurrection, but before the peace deal was reached, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attacked Putin: “Anyone who chooses the path of evil destroys himself. Sends columns of soldiers to destroy the lives of another country – and cannot stop them from fleeing and betraying when life resists. He terrorizes with rockets, and when they are shot down, he humiliates himself to give “Shaheda”.
“He despises people and throws hundreds of thousands into the war – in order to eventually barricade himself in the Moscow region from those whom he himself armed. For a long time, Russia used propaganda to mask its weakness and the stupidity of its government.
“And now there is so much chaos that no lie can hide it. And all this is one person, who again and again scares the year 1917, although he is not able to lead to anything else.”
He accused the Russian state of being weak and evil and vowed to continue the fight: “Russia‘s weakness is obvious. Full-scale weakness. And the longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain and problems it will have for itself later. This is also obvious.
“Ukraine is able to protect Europe from the spread of Russian evil and chaos.We keep our strength, unity and strength.
He signed off by addressing his own military leaders, saying: “All our commanders, all our soldiers know what to do. Glory to Ukraine!”
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