Vladimir Putin may no longer be funding the mercenary Wagner Group, Britain’s defence ministry has said.
The Russian state has acted against some other business interests of Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin after he led a failed mutiny against the country’s army’s top brass in June, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) said in its daily bulletin on Sunday, concluding: “There is a realistic possibility that the Kremlin no longer funds the group.”
"The second most plausible paymasters are the Belarusian authorities," it said, adding that this would be a drain on Belarus' resources.
The ministry also said the Wagner Group was moving towards downsizing and reconfiguring to save on staff salary expenses at a time of financial pressure.
This comes as Ukraine said its troops have made gains on the southern frontline and claimed to have captured unspecified territories. General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukrainian forces in the south, said the “defence forces are working” in a message on Telegram on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Kyiv said its forces had made progress near Robotyne on the front line in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. But the battlefield reports have not yet been independently verified.
