‘Sometimes our friends act in such a way that we don’t need enemies.’ Kremlin spokesman Peskov on reports of conflict between Wagner Group and Russia military.
Any reports of a conflict between the Russian Defense Ministry and the Wagner mercenary group are simply a “product of media speculation,” Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
[These reports are] primarily the product of information manipulation and so on, which, sure, is sometimes organized by our enemies in the information sphere, but sometimes our friends behave in such a way that we don’t need enemies.
Peskov emphasized that Russia “knows its heroes,” adding that both soldiers and Wagner Group fighters will “always be in [Russians’] memories.”
After the Russian Defense Ministry failed to mention the Wagner Group in its report of the capture of Soledar, Evgeny Prigozhin, the organization’s founder, said that others (i.e. the Russian military) are “always trying to steal victory” from the mercenary group. The Defense Ministry then put out a press release about the “brave and selfless actions” of Wagner fighters as they stormed the city. The report marked the first time the ministry had mentioned the group in a press release since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.
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