Ukraine war: Wagner Group suffers heavy losses as their boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, steps firmly into the spotlight
The graves are all fresh. Row after row of them, almost identical. The same mound of sandy soil, the same black, red and yellow wreath mounted with a golden star.
The same wooden, orthodox cross to mark the grave, though there are some Muslim headstones too. Just the names and the dates on a small bronze plaque to distinguish the lives extinguished. None of them lived to a ripe old age.
This is a cemetery for Wagner mercenaries near Krasnodar in southern Russia. Krasnodar region is the Wagner Group’s heartland. Their training ground is nearby in a village called Molkino.
There is a newly built chapel not far away which houses the urns of cremated fighters. And there is space available for still more graves in this cemetery, when the next wave of bodies come home.
Wagner is heavily involved in Russia’s offensive around Bakhmut and Soledar in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Its fighters have died, Ukraine says, in their thousands.
Most likely the bulk of those were convicts, sent in to die like cannon fodder and be buried in a Wagner cemetery far from home. Perhaps after time in Russia’s penal colonies they no longer had homes to speak of.
“The area near Soledar is covered with corpses of the invaders… This is what madness looks like,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said in one of his nightly addresses.
The rows of graves of Wagner fighters are almost identical
Russia claims to be in control of Soledar, a victory that Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, declares as his own.
In the past few days he has also claimed to be behind the capture of the village of Klishchiivka about nine kilometres south of Bakhmut, though that has yet to be confirmed from the Ukrainian side. The Russian defence ministry has been less gracious about Wagner’s role but it has conceded that they played a role in capturing Soledar.
There are rumours, dismissed by the Kremlin as media speculation, that army boss Valery Gerasimov was brought in to replace Sergey Surovikin as head of Ukraine operations partly to keep Prigozhin in line.
Putting the top military commander in charge of Russia’s “special military operation” could be interpreted as a way of reinforcing army hierarchy and reminding Prigozhin and his band of mercenaries who is ultimately in charge.
Prigozhin, who only a few months ago refused to confirm the well-known secret that he ran the Wagner Group and sued anyone who suggested otherwise, has come out in public all guns blazing. There is no longer a need for the “regime of silence”, he said.
Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin inspects body bags. Pic: Fan Media Agency
There are videos of him now in the salt mines around Bakhmut, where US officials believe he has an eye on the mineral spoils.
There are videos of him handing out medals to his fighters. There are videos of him surveying piles of body bags behind the frontlines and attending funerals back home. He has not shied away from his losses, demanding the same burial rights for his men as for regular army soldiers.
He has shown himself willing to be a presence at the frontlines, quite the battleground commander, which is more than can be said for the ultimate commander-in-chief who, unlike Ukraine’s president, has paid no visits to the front.
Prigozhin’s PR team provide quick responses, purportedly from the man himself, to media questions. In a recent salvo, he takes aim at Kremlin bureaucrats who he says are longing for Russia to lose the war and for the US to start calling the shots in Russia. But the US “won’t take you in”, he writes to these supposed Kremlin traitors. “And then you will come to us, where the Wagner sledgehammer will be waiting for you.”
It is getting harder for the Wagner Group to recruit fighters after heavy losses
The sledgehammer is no idle threat. In November, video appeared purporting to show a Wagner mercenary bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer for defecting to Ukraine. When asked to comment, Prigozhin replied, “a dog receives a dog’s death”.
Later that month, a bloodied sledgehammer in a violin case was presented to the European Parliament as they debated declaring Russia a terrorist state, a sinister message from the group also known in Russia as “The musicians”.
But losing that many men creates problems and the recruitment drive in Russia’s prisons is reportedly drying up.
Paul Whelan, a US citizen (who also holds British citizenship) and was jailed in 2018 on espionage charges, told his brother David that Wagner recruiters had little luck the last time they came round his prison colony. “Everyone else has a clear picture of what happens to prisoners who go to fight the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine”, David Whelan wrote in his regular email updates. This time round, they reportedly managed to sign up just eight men, compared with 115 on the previous occasion.
Prigozhin is a powerful man. He is unashamedly critical of both Russia’s senior military command and of the Kremlin elites though he does not say a bad word about Vladimir Putin.
Wagner has played a key role for years already as an unofficial arm of Russian foreign policy in Syria, Libya and other African countries.
Now in Ukraine, the group is out in the open. But Ukraine is a far bloodier battlefield and the fight more existential, both for the Wagner Group and for Putin’s Russia, which has enabled men like Prigozhin, with his brutal, sledgehammer tradecraft, to flourish.
Donald Trump has said American troops will not be sent to Ukraine, but the US may provide air support as part of a peace deal with Russia.
A day after his extraordinary White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders of Kyiv’s European allies, the US president told Fox News “when it comes to security, [Europeans] are willing to put people on the ground. We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, by air”.
Ukraine war – follow the latest developments
Mr Trump did not elaborate, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters US air support was “an option and a possibility”.
She said the US president “has definitively stated US boots will not be on the ground in Ukraine, but we can certainly help in the coordination and perhaps provide other means of security guarantees to our European allies”.
Air support could take many forms, including missile defence systems or fighter jets enforcing a no-fly zone – and it’s not clear what role the US would play under any proposed peace deal.
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What security guarantees could work?
Zelenskyy-Putin summit
It comes as planning for a possible Zelenskyy-Putin summit get under way. Talks between the Ukrainian and Russian president are seen by Mr Trump as vital to ending the war.
Sky News understands a meeting could happen before the end of the month, with Geneva, Vienna, Rome, Budapest, and Doha among the venues being considered.
Geneva, Switzerland, is considered the best option, with Rome or the Vatican disliked by the Russians and Budapest, Hungary, not favoured by the Ukrainians.
European allies are understood to want security guarantees to be defined before the meeting.
A NATO-like treaty, guaranteeing Ukraine’s allies would come to its defence in case of any future Russian attack, is being worked on and could be completed by next week.
Like the US, Sky News understands Italy is opposed to putting boots on the ground in Ukraine.
But EU diplomats are confident this is the best chance yet to stop the war, and allies could return to Washington in early September to celebrate any deal being struck.
Read more on Sky News:
‘Don’t trust Russia,’ diplomat warns
Why peace may be further away, not closer
Five key takeaways from White House talks
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Sky’s Mark Stone takes you inside Zelenskyy-Trump 2.0
Trump still has doubts about Putin
Despite the renewed optimism about a peace deal following Monday’s White House summit, Mr Trump has admitted Vladimir Putin might not be sincere about wanting to end the war.
“We’re going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks,” he told Fox News.
He’s previously threatened to put more sanctions on Russia if a peace deal isn’t reached, though previously set deadlines have been and gone.
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Russia launched its biggest air assault on Ukraine in more than a month on Monday night, sending 270 drones and 10 missiles, the Ukrainian air force said.
Ukraine’s European allies in the so-called Coalition of the Willing, an initiative spearheaded by Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, discussed additional sanctions to place on Russia on Tuesday.
World
Ukrainian diplomat involved in 90s nuclear deal with Russia warns Trump about ‘very big mistake’ with Putin
Ukrainians have given a lukewarm reaction to this week’s White House summit.
There is bafflement and unease here after US President Donald Trump switched sides to support his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, dropping calls for a ceasefire and proposing that Ukraine surrender territory.
While allies are talking up the prospects of progress, people here remain unconvinced.
Ukraine war latest – Trump rules out using US troops
Boris Yeltsin (2L) and Bill Clinton (C) sign the 1994 Budapest Memorandum
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What security guarantees could work?
The Trump administration’s contradictory statements on possible security guarantees are causing concern here.
MP Lesia Vasylenko told Sky News it is not at all clear what the allies have in mind.
“Who is going to be there backing Ukraine in case Russia decides to revisit their imperialistic plans and strategies and in case they want to restart this war of aggression?”
For many Ukrainians, there is a troubling sense of deja vu.
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Ukrainian drone strikes Russian fuel train
In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agreed to give up not land but its nuclear arsenal, inherited from the Soviet Union, in return for security assurances from Russia and other powers.
They know how that ended up to their enormous cost. Putin reneged on Russia’s side of the bargain, with his invasion of Crimea in 2014 and once again with his full-scale attack three and a half years ago.
We met veteran Ukrainian diplomat Yuri Kostenko, who helped lead those negotiations in the 90s.
Veteran Ukrainian diplomat Yuri Kostenko helped lead the Budapest Memorandum negotiations
He said there is a danger the world makes the same mistake and trusts Vladimir Putin when he says he wants to stop the killing, something Mr Trump said he now believes.
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“It’s not true, it’s not true, Russia never, never, it’s my practices in more than 30 years, Russia never stop their aggression plans to occupy all Ukraine and I think that Mr Trump, if he really believes Mr Putin, it will be a very big mistake, Mr Trump, a very big mistake.”
Before the Alaska summit, allies agreed the best path to peace was forcing Mr Putin to stop his invasion, hitting him where it hurts with severe sanctions on his oil trade.
But Mr Trump has given up calls for a ceasefire and withdrawn threats to impose those tougher sanctions.
Instead, he has led allies down a different and more uncertain path.
Read more on Sky News:
Putin wasn’t there, but influenced summit
Peace further away, not closer
Five takeaways from White House talks
Ukrainians we met on the streets of Kyiv said they would love to believe in progress more than anything, but are not encouraged by what they are hearing.
While the diplomacy moves on in an unclear direction, events on the ground and in the skies above Ukraine are depressingly predictable.
Russia is continuing hundreds of drone attacks every night, and its forces are advancing on the front.
If Vladimir Putin really wants this war to end, he’s showing no sign of it, while Ukrainians fear Donald Trump is taking allies down a blind alley of fruitless diplomacy.
World
Putin wasn’t at the White House, but his influence was – the moments which reveal his hold over Trump
Vladimir Putin wasn’t at the White House but his influence clearly was. At times, it dominated the room.
There were three key moments that revealed the Russian president‘s current hold over Donald Trump.
The first was in the Oval Office. Sitting alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the US president told reporters: “I don’t think you need a ceasefire.”
Ukraine talks latest: Zelenskyy ‘ready to meet’ Putin after Trump summit
Vladimir Putin shaking hands with Donald Trump when they met last week. Pic: Reuters
It was a stunning illustration of Mr Trump’s about-face in his approach to peace. For the past six months, a ceasefire has been his priority, but after meeting Mr Putin in Alaska, suddenly it’s not.
Confirmation that he now views the war through Moscow’s eyes.
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Trump applauds Putin and shares ride in ‘The Beast’ last week
The second was the format itself, with Mr Trump reverting to his favoured ask-what-you-like open-ended Q&A.
In Alaska, Mr Putin wasn’t made to take any questions – most likely, because he didn’t want to. But here, Mr Zelenskyy didn’t have a choice. He was subjected to a barrage of them to see if he’d learnt his lesson from last time.
It was a further demonstration of the special status Mr Trump seems to afford to Mr Putin.
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The third was their phone call. Initially, President Trump said he’d speak to the Kremlin leader after his meeting with European leaders. But it turned out to be during it.
A face-to-face meeting with seven leaders was interrupted for a phone call with one – as if Mr Trump had to check first with Mr Putin, before continuing his discussions.
We still don’t know the full details of the peace proposal that’s being drawn up, but all this strongly suggests that it’s one sketched out by Russia. The White House is providing the paper, but the Kremlin is holding the pen.
Read more:
Four key takeaways from the White House Ukraine summit
Trump has taken peace talks a distance not seen since the war began
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Trump, Zelenskyy and the suit: What happened?
For Moscow, the aim now is to keep Mr Trump on their path to peace, which is settlement first, ceasefire later.
It believes that’s the best way of securing its goals, because it has more leverage so long as the fighting continues.
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But Mr Putin will be wary that Mr Trump is pliable and can easily change his mind, depending on the last person he spoke to.
So to ensure that his sympathies aren’t swayed, and its red lines remain intact, Russia will be straining to keep its voice heard.
On Monday, for example, the Russian foreign ministry was quick to condemn recent comments from the UK government that it would be ready to send troops to help enforce any ceasefire.
It described the idea as “provocative” and “predatory”.
Moscow is trying to drown out European concerns by portraying itself as the party that wants peace the most, and Kyiv (and Europe) as the obstacle.
But while Mr Zelenskyy has agreed to a trilateral meeting, the Kremlin has not. After the phone call between Mr Putin and Mr Trump, it said the leaders discussed “raising the level of representatives” in the talks between Russia and Ukraine. No confirmation to what level.
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