Another group was awarded
Prigozhin should play no role in Ukraine invasion
05/12/2023 1:52 p.m
The revelation is explosive: The Wagner mercenary group was not supposed to play a role at the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Her boss, Prigozhin, was downright ignored. Another group won the contract. However, they suffered massive losses.
Apparently, the notorious mercenary group Wagner was initially not to play any role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The “Spiegel” and the Russian investigative platform “The Insider” suggest that mobile phone data and witness statements.
Accordingly, a far more important role was intended for a new mercenary company called Redut, which is attributed to the former Wagner man Anatolij Karazij. GRU deputy head Vladimir Alexeyev is said to have literally cut Prigozhin in the run-up to the Russian invasion – while, according to his mobile phone connection data, he was in intensive communication with Karazij and other important figures in the preparations for the invasion.
Accordingly, Alexeyev pushed away a call from Prigozhin on his mobile phone on February 20, 2022 – four days before the start of the war. A callback or further communication cannot be found in the telephone data. It was not until the afternoon of the beginning of the war on February 24 that the two communicated with each other again – for just one minute and 42 seconds. Even after that, there was radio silence between the two for several weeks.
The cell phone data supports statements from several sources that Prigozhin and his mercenary squad should not play a role in the Russian invasion. Instead, Redut had recruited several thousand mercenaries – including many ex-Wagner people.
Prigozhin wanted to kill competitors
This does not seem to have escaped Prigozhin’s attention. According to several people with knowledge of the events, Prigozhin reportedly approached Alexeyev in anger at the end of January. He will “kill” his ex-employee and new competitor Karazij. Alexeyev is said to have coolly referred him to Karazij himself. He is said to have been in an office at the GRU headquarters at the time.
The mercenaries of Operation Redut are said to have suffered the heaviest casualties in the first weeks of the war – while Prigozhin was assembling troops for an operation in the Ukraine at his own risk.
As of March 19, 2022, Prigozhin and Alexeyev communicated regularly via cellphone. Prigozhin has publicly identified March 19 as his date of entry into the war.