Prigozhin promised Ukrainian intelligence to reveal positions of Russian troops in exchange for Ukrainian withdrawal from Bakhmut - WP

In late January, the founder of the so-called Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, offered Kyiv data on the positions of the Russian army in exchange for the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Bakhmut.

Source. The Washington Post writes about this with reference to leaked Pentagon classified documents.

The head of the mercenary group conveyed his proposal through his contacts in Ukraine's military intelligence, with whom he has been in secret communication since the beginning of the war, the newspaper claims.

According to one of the sources, Prigozhin told the Ukrainian intelligence officer that Russian troops were facing a shortage of ammunition and advised them to take advantage of the low morale of Russian soldiers to move towards the border with Crimea.

At the same time, a US intelligence report claims that Prigozhin was worried about the heavy losses of the Wagner PMC in Bakhmut, which made his mercenaries refuse to go into battle. Against this backdrop, his feud with Russian military commanders, whom he accused of insufficient supplies of ammunition, escalated.

The leaked document does not specify which positions of Russian troops Prigozhin proposed to reveal. Two officials confirmed that the head of the Wagner PMC had contacted representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. According to one of them, Prigozhin repeatedly made proposals regarding Bakhmut, but the Ukrainians rejected them because they did not trust Putin's "cook."

According to U.S. intelligence, in addition to phone calls, Prigozhin met in person with GUR officers in an African country. One Ukrainian interlocutor characterized contacts with him as an attempt to "keep friends close and enemies even closer."

Prigozhin himself initially commented ironically on the Washington Post article.

"Of course, I can confirm this information. We have nothing to hide from foreign intelligence services. Budanov and I are still in Africa," Prigozhin said on his telegram channel.

However, later, the head of Wagner called WP's allegations speculation, and also suggested that "some of the journalists decided to have a laugh" or some "comrades from Rublevka" decided to "pour shit".

The day before, WP published an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from which a fragment about contacts between Ukrainian intelligence and Prigozhin was removed.

"This is a matter of military intelligence," Zelensky said, refusing to talk about it.

Background. As a reminder, Prigozhin went so far as to call Putin a "happy old man who thinks everything is fine" and an "asshole."