Ukraine Says 'Tiny Cracks' Emerging in Kremlin After Prighozin Comments

Cracks are beginning to show in the Kremlin over recent comments made by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, a paramilitary outfit fighting in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian intelligence official.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence agency GUR, said on Ukrainian public television that Russia's elite is becoming "increasingly depressed" amid Russian President Vladimir Putin's faltering war.

Yusov was commenting on Prigozhin's remarks last week in which he called on Putin to end his ongoing "special military operation" in Ukraine and focus instead on the territories it occupied in the country.

"Russian propaganda in the domestic market remains effective and, basically, Solovyov and Skabeeva (Russian state TV hosts) can indeed tell ordinary [Russian citizens] tomorrow that they have won..." Yusov said.

Yusov said he believes Prigozhin's remarks reflect the mood of the Russian military and political elite, and now there are "tiny cracks" in the Kremlin that will only grow larger.

"After all, Prigozhin speaks not only on his own behalf but also on behalf of his partners and patrons in the Kremlin. And so, the mood among the military-political elite and the business elite in Russia is becoming increasingly depressed because Russia has already suffered a strategic defeat," he said.

"None of the goals set have been achieved, which means that for Russia itself and the Russian elite, the end should come as soon as possible. Let's say that there are now many tiny cracks, and they will grow bigger."

In his remarks last week, Prigozhin said that "it is necessary to put a decisive end to the special military operation."

The ideal option is to announce the end of the special military operation, to inform everyone that Russia has achieved the results that it planned, and in a sense, we have actually achieved them," he said.

Newsweek reached out to Russia's Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

However, the Institute for the Study of War, a United States-based think-tank, assessed that Prigozhin was making a "strawman argument," and that his overall message was to press on with the conflict.

"Prigozhin has an idiosyncratic rhetorical and writing style that relies heavily on deadpan sarcasm, selective ambiguity, aphorisms, vulgarity, and ironic slang," the ISW said.

Prigozhin's remarks came nearly 14 months into Putin's war on Ukraine and as Russia braces for an anticipated counteroffensive from Ukraine aimed at recapturing the territories seized by Russian forces throughout the conflict.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via worldnews@newsweek.com.