One of the people closest to Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who also functions as one of the owners of the private militia "Wagner Force," called on him to stop the war in Ukraine. Prigozhin wrote a comment on the messaging app Telegram and called on the Russian president to declare that "Moscow won the special military operation by exterminating a large part of the male population in Ukraine and occupying its territories."
Prigozhin also claimed that "Russia has captured a large part of Ukraine's territory," adding that, "the best strategy for the Russian army, which suffered heavy losses, is to maintain the existing achievements." In addition, although it was previously reported that there were some differences of opinion between Prigozhin and Putin, he emphasized that "nothing threatens Russia's power," apparently referring to the Russian president.
He also claimed that "for the authorities and society as a whole, it is necessary to put an end to the special operation".
According to him, "the ideal option is to announce the end of the special operation and declare that Russia has achieved the goals that were planned." He also noted that "in a sense, Moscow also achieved them. We killed a huge number of Ukrainian soldiers, so we can report that missions in the special operation have been completed. Russia has occupied a large part of Ukraine's territory, and even managed to create a land corridor to the Crimean peninsula."
US intelligence leak
Last Thursday, The New York Times reported that a new 27-page file was leaked online, containing evidence of the penetration of American intelligence agencies into the Russian intelligence apparatus and evidence of internal struggles between the various security agencies in Russia.
The documents also showed evidence that Russia hid the true number of people killed in the war and provide details of a meeting held between the president, Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergey Shvigo, and the leader of "Wagner Force" Yevgeny Prigozhin.
According to the report, the documents indicate that there was an exchange of accusations between the various security agencies in Russia, including the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Russian Ministry of Defense, regarding the number of casualties in the war in Ukraine. The document also states that "the FSB calculated the number of dead and wounded during the fighting, which reached more than 110,000."
This comes after American officials previously estimated the number of losses among the Russians at about 200,000. The document shows that as of last February, the Russians suffered between 189,500 and 223,000 casualties and 43,000 dead. The document also claims that on the Ukrainian side, between 124,000 and 131,000 people were injured, and 17,500 were killed during the war.