Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who turned his fighters against the military leadership in Moscow, has moved to Belarus, and the criminal charges against him for mounting an armed rebellion will be dropped, the Kremlin said Saturday. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko negotiated the deal with the Wagner Group chief, his …
Read More »Meet Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Ex-Convict Who Made a Run on Moscow
by Mike Eckel Yevgeny Prigozhin, a convict who parlayed a St. Petersburg restaurant business into lucrative Kremlin contracts, founded the private military company Wagner, and became a relentless critic of the Russian military command, made and then stopped a run on Moscow as part of a truncated rebellion. Who is …
Read More »Kremlin Charges Wagner Chief With Mutiny, as Prigozhin Asks Russians to Join Uprising Against Defense Minister
The Kremlin charged Yevgeny Prigozhin with mutiny on Friday night after the bellicose Wagner Group chief called on all Russians to join his forces in an uprising against the country’s defense minister. Prigozhin accused his wartime nemesis, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, of ordering Russian troops to shell Prigozhin’s forces in …
Read More »Prigozhin Vows to Send Home Bodies of American, Turkish Fighters Killed in Ukraine
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said he will repatriate the bodies of an American citizen who was killed in fighting in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, and that of a Turkish citizen who was found dead. The Russian private military chief Prigozhin announced his plans on May 25, as part …
Read More »‘Enemy in the wire!’ The Grueling Battle for Combat Outpost Keating
by Elizabeth M. Collins “Enemy in the wire! Enemy in the wire!” The news, the stuff of nightmares, spread through Red and Blue platoons in seconds. “Enemy in the wire.” Many soldiers didn’t believe it at first. It was a phrase they never expected to hear, one they dreaded. It …
Read More »Ed Freeman and Bruce Crandall Flew Unarmed Helicopters Under Fire in Vietnam
Ed Freeman was close to retirement when war broke out in Vietnam. He was an experienced pilot by then and assigned to the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, which was sent to deliver troops to what became known as the Battle of Ia Drang, the first major battle between the United …
Read More »Russia’s ‘Butcher of Mariupol’ Joins Wagner PMC as Prigozhin Escalates Feud With Putin’s Military Commanders
A high ranking Russian military officer known as the “Butcher of Mariupol” has joined the Wagner Group as a deputy commander, according to Russian social media channels. The commander, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, previously was fired from his post as Deputy Defense Minister. He had garnered a reputation for his …
Read More »Drones Over the Kremlin: Who Launched the Flights That Sparked a Firestorm of Accusations?
by Mike Eckel, RFE/RL Prior to May 3, the last time the Kremlin was attacked — bombed, in fact — was in 1942, when Nazi forces were closing in on Moscow. Before that, you’d have to go back to Napoleon, when French forces entered the Kremlin, albeit without much of …
Read More »Wagner’s Prigozhin Tells Snipers to Adjust Aim When Trying to Shoot Him From Afar
by Susan Katz Keating Russian snipers who want to take out Yevgeny Prigozhin can look through their scopes to find instructions on a wall inside their target’s office, the Wagner Group leader said. Assassins can read the instructions from their sniper nests across the river in St. Petersburg, Prigozhin said. …
Read More »Ukraine Holds Positions in Bakhmut as Russia Claims Advances in Fiercely Contested City
Ukrainian defenders continue to hold their strategic positions in Bakhmut, a senior military commander has said after Russia claimed it had made advances in the city that has been the epicenter of a fierce monthslong battle for the control of the eastern Donetsk region. “We hit the enemy, often unexpectedly …
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