Revolt from Within: The Rise of Wagner - Battle Bakhmut

Putin thought his invasion of Ukraine would be over in a matter of days. Instead, fierce Ukrainian resistance and logistical nightmares for Russia turned it into a war of attrition. Putin went to his fixer Prigozhin to take the city of Bakhmut. But Prigozhin needed more men, so he was given extraordinary access to Russia’s prisons to recruit thousands of inmates to deploy to eastern Ukraine. Prigozhin would make a public promise to take Bakhmut for the Kremlin, which was an insult to Russia’s top generals, who would ultimately move to absorb Wagner into the Russian army. It would be the last straw for Prigozhin.July 10, 2023