Prigozhin is the first member of putin's entourage to propose putting a "full stop" to the war against Ukraine

The founder of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that the "ideal option" now would be to "announce the end of the SMO". He is the first person from the entourage of russian dictator putin to suggest that russia should stop military operations.

"For the government and for society in general, it is necessary to put a full stop to the SDO today. The ideal option would be to announce the end of the SMO, to tell everyone that russia has achieved the results it planned, and in a sense we have indeed achieved them," Prigozhin (or his bot farm workers) wrote in an article on the Telegraph website.

According to him, russia has "theoretically" already achieved these results by destroying "a large part of the active male population of Ukraine" and intimidating another, cutting off the Azov Sea and a large chunk of the Black Sea, seizing "a fat piece of Ukraine's territory" and creating a land corridor to Crimea.

Now, the founder of the Wagner Group writes, it remains "to firmly establish a foothold, to dig in on the territories that are already there."

He considers the option of freezing the war unlikely now, as Ukraine is preparing for a counteroffensive. Moreover, Prigozhin is sure that the sooner it starts, the better, while the West, on the contrary, is stalling for time by supporting the Armed Forces to increase pressure on the russian elite, which he calls the "deep state" dissatisfied with putin. According to the businessman, the United States is trying to convince these people to persuade the president to make a "deal" with the Americans.

"Preserving the existing borders on February 24, 2023 is the exchange that the United States can offer the russian leadership today as a negotiating position. That's why we need a "dramatic pause". If the (russian) government refuses, the Armed Forces will go on the offensive," Prigozhin said.

In his opinion, there may be different scenarios in this situation. One of them is the defeat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the subsequent seizure of Ukrainian territories, but Prigozhin considers this "not very likely."

The second option is russia's defeat. He is confident that, unlike the "treaty," this will be for the benefit of the country, because even if it "hits rock bottom," it will recover from the blow and be able to take revenge.

"Radical national feelings will rise, as they do after any military defeat, and the russian military industry will start working with tenfold effort. The state will get rid of bureaucracy, processes will become transparent, and russia will turn step by step into a Military Monster that the international community will have to reckon with," Prigozhin thinks.

"The "Treaty" threatens to collapse russia, the Wagnerian curator is sure. He noted that in this case, the "deep state" will force the russian leadership to "make concessions and return the territories captured by russia to Ukraine under various pretexts."

"These processes, with the question "Why did we fight then?" will trigger the mechanism of centrifugal forces in the regions. And the Americans will achieve their goal," Prigozhin summarized.

Background. As a reminder, the European Union has imposed sanctions against the Wagner Group.