Prigozhin’s Rising Cut Russian Supply Lines To Ukraine, Ensuring Kyiv Can Win The War If It Acts Quickly – OpEd
By Paul Goble
In a single day, Prigozhin and his Wagner PMC sliced through the supply lines of the Russian army fighting in Ukraine, putting that army at risk of rapid defeat if as is likely the Ukrainian side recognizes what has happened in the last 24 hours and attacks Russian forces at strategic locations, Vladislav Inozemtsev says.
Because of what Prigozhin and company did, the Moscow economist and political commentator says, the war in Ukraine “is over.” The Russian forces will now lose it very quickly; and therefore what is happening is very good for Ukraine (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2023/06/24/putin-konchilsia).
“The Russian army now fighting in Ukraine requires a huge logistical system,” Inozemtsev continues. And the main routes of this supply chain were “destroyed in one day” by Prigozhin who disrupted those lines over more than 1000 kilometers. “I think that the Ukrainians cannot fail to take advantage of this situation.”
The Ukrainians need to act very quickly as Moscow may seek to recover what it has lost, but the Prigozhin rising showed how pathetic the Russian system has become under Putin and the incompetent people he has put in charge of the military. And perhaps worse for Putin is the fact that everyone can see that he can’t control the situation.
As the latest Russian anecdote puts it, in 2021, Russia had the second strongest army in the world. By 2022, it had the second strongest one in Ukraine; and now in 2023, the Russian army is the second strongest one in Russia itself.” Russians are laughing about this, and that laughter is about Putin.
