CNN: Russian elite piles on Putin ally leading Russian mercenary group

Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the private Russian army Wagner Group, is lashing out at the Russian Defense Ministry while some in the Russian elite are levying heavy criticism on the one-time Putin ally. CNN’s Melissa Bell reports.

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>>> Tonight, new video just in to out front, the moment a soldier shoots a Russian jet out of the sky. Holding a sure fas to air missile launcher and fires twice and you see the entire recoil turning away and then you will see the jet’s wreckage still burning.

You can appear — you can see what appears to be a white parachute. We don’t know what happened to that pilot. We do have new pilot of what appears to be a Russian hideout that was destroyed and Russian fighters basically moving in between homes and then, you know the Ukrainians, they filmed it.

The drones see it, it was spotted and you’ll see the massive fireball in the neighborhood as you see. Russia’s losses that they are sustaining in this way in place after place along the front line is partly why Russia is — you’reeing a big ramp up in recruitment exforts anecdotally

On the ground and we have video of young children being taught to be prepared to fight. These are children in annexed crimea and that girl is fast and they’re learning biological training and Wagner has its own youth club in St. Petersburg and there are kids who now reportedly attend there and are

Able to use drone simulators, reportedly. We do see it turning to its youngest and there are recruiting efforts in schools and boys as it faces mounting losses on the battlefield. Melissa bell is out front tonight. >> Wagner fighters at an industrial plant inside bakhmut. They are making very gradual

Advances, but at a huge cost. >> This soldier says Ukrainian forces have vast amounts of ammunition and are heavily shelling the area. We can’t even raise our heads, he says. Wagner has been trying to take bakhmut for two months and may now be running short of fighters. Its boss, yevgeny prigozhin has

Lashed out at the Russian defense ministry for starving his men of ammunition. >> Translator: We need the military to shield the approaches if they manage to do so everything will be okay. If not, then Wagner will be encircled together with the Ukrainians inside bakhmut. >> In his latest social media

Post, prigozhin praised honest Russian soldiers and claimed, quote, unprofessional scoundrels and intriguers crush these modest guys and begin to push them around and humiliate them. Yet another dive at the military hierarchy in Moscow. Prigozhin has accused the defense mippistry of incompetence and corruption and compared his own almost continuous present in bakhmut to

The notable absence of sergei shoigu. Prigozhin, once a Putin ally and nicknamed Putin’s chef is a man under pressure. He recruited tens of thousands of Russian men from prisons and they’ve endured horrendous losses, as many as 80% in some units. He’s dredging for recruits and his more experienced units are

Stretched as they try to encircle bakhmut. Western analysts think that prigozhin has fallen into a trap laid by shoigu. A trap designed to weaken both Wagner and its boss. Just when Wagner most needs the support of the Russian military around bakhmut, it’s curiously absent. Russia’s elite piling out the oligarch.

Alexei mukin accused prigozhin of political ambitions and said he was an incompetent commander adding, he has exposed the Wagner fighters to a major rishg of encirclement from the attack. He has regarded prigozhin as Vladimir Putin’s licensed disruptor and if there is an unsuccessful bid to take bakhmut

He might find himself out in the cold. For now, Erin, the battle for bakhmut continues. Ukrainians saying it is too early to draw conclusions one way or the other in this ongoing battle. What is also unclear at this stage is what happens with the battle within the battle and whether yevgeny prigozhin can

Come out unscathed. Erin? >> Melissa, thank you very much from Ukraine. Out front now, major general James “Spider” marks. Can Putin afford to let the Wagner group totally fail? >> No, he can’t. He doesn’t want them to fail. I tell you, Melissa’s report was really phenomenal, the levels of

Detail and the analysis and the relationships and the interknifing and fighting that ostensibly takes place within Putin’s hierarchy. It’s not frightening. It’s to be expected, I guess. It’s a imga of thrones kind of environment. Putin can’t afford to lose the Wagner group, and I will tell you, if he were to lose

Prigozhin someone else would step up and they’d be recruited in and that individual would go about the business of creating a contract force not unlike the Wagner group. The money exists and they’ll find the recruits and they’re going to pay folks. They have the money to buy the

Kit and the individuals and that doesn’t mean they have the training. So I think Putin’s got himself a legitimate problem here having much freedom into prigozhin’s hand. >> You know what’s interesting? I spoke to a Ukrainian soldier in bakhmut and he told us something he heard about and it

Still sort of stuns to imagine that the Wagner forces literally run into machine gun fire and they die en masse. Here’s what he said. >> I can’t believe that people, a real person can run without afraid to die, without no recitation and they see the fellows falling down and they continue running.

Wagner have only — only one chance to survive is to take our position, our trenches. That’s all. They have no choice to return to the position because they will be killed from their fellows. >> I mean, it is amazing to hear him say it, right? That, you know, and then I

Realized the key to their success because they can’t turn around. They know they’re going to die. So their best shot is to run into machine gun fire. >> Yeah. There is a distinct difference between a Ukrainian soldier who is fighting for the sovereignty and Independence of his nation and the Russian conscripted and

The contracted Wagner group individual. Russian — I’m sorry, the Ukrainian soldier is going to fight for his buddies. He’s fighting for his organization. He’s fighting for those on his left and his right and that individual is more frightened about letting them down than he is potentially dying in combat.

The ones that are working for Wagner know that the end state will be death of some sort so they really don’t care. They are frightened of dying, but they are more frightened to be shot in the head if they are to return. You have professional soldiers, vis-a-vis, the conscripted

Killers with no motivation other than the threat from a boss, effectless, horrible leadership. They’re going to end their lives one way or the other so they have no choice. >> That’s just stunning. >> It really is just incredible

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