*programming note: cables will be off on Monday and will resume per the usual schedule thereafter.
Further Pentagon leaks Part I: Wagner’s Prigozhin - a traitor?
Leaked Pentagon documents, which surfaced on Discord, have brought to light a revelation regarding Prigozhin's offer to disclose the positions of Russian troops to Ukraine's military intelligence directorate (GUR) in January.
This disclosure was allegedly proposed in exchange for Kyiv's withdrawal from the Donetsk town, as reported by WaPo.
According to the report, Prigozhin allegedly engaged in telephone conversations and face-to-face meetings with Ukrainian intelligence officers in Africa. During these exchanges, he reportedly discussed Russia's ammunition deficiencies and encouraged more aggressive Ukrainian attacks against Russian troops.
Furthermore, Prigozhin purportedly advocated for Kyiv to launch strikes on Crimea and provided information regarding Russian troop positions in Bakhmut to Ukraine.
However, Kyiv apparently declined Prigozhin's overtures due to a lack of trust, a sentiment shared by Washington (both judgments are most probably correct).
Now, the Kremlin was quick to dismiss all this, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissing the allegations as baseless, referring to them as "more nonsense."
(side note: the Kremlin has an incentive to deny these whether they are true or not. Either they are untrue and should be denied, or they are true, and should still be dismissed as ‘‘fake news’’ in order to protect Putin’s reputation. Imagine the scandal of admitting that Putin’s personal chef turned out to be the highest profile traitor in this war)
