The assassination of Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin proves that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not be negotiated with because he cannot be trusted, Ukraine’s Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said in an interview with Welt.
According to Oleksii Reznikov, the death of Evgeny Prigozhin will not affect the course of the Russo-Ukrainian war because “the Wagner group no longer exists.”
“Prigozhin’s death has weakened Putin. It showed the world that if Putin makes a deal with someone and breaks it, he can no longer be trusted,” Reznikov said. “This is just the behavior of gangsters, and the Kremlin behaves like gangsters, like criminals.”
Reznikov said that the Wagner Group used to be a serious force that severely threatened Ukraine a year ago, but now it is “defeated.”
The attack on 23 August, which downed Prigozhin’s private jet in Russia’s Tver region, has effectively ended the mercenary group’s ability to operate independently of the Kremlin, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Russian President Vladimir Putin is believed to be behind the assassination of Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder Dmitry Utkin, and logistics head Valery Chekalov on 23 August, according to ISW.
Related:
- ISW: Assassination of Wagner Group Leadership effectively ends organization’s autonomy from Kremlin
- Prigozhin’s failed mutiny: What made him back down?
- Prigozhin stops Wagner forces 200 km away from Moscow, says they return to field camps
- Wagner’s mutiny exposes serious cracks in Putin’s regime, Blinken says