Ukrainian Forces Photobombed Russian Mercenaries—With Rockets

‘Photobombing’ refers to a scenario whereby a stranger interposes themselves into a photograph to prank the themes. However not too long ago Ukrainian troops practiced a extra literal type of photobombing by interposing precision-guided munitions with the themes of Russian propaganda imagery.

On August 9, Telegram channels related to Russia’s Wagner mercenary group posted images portraying a go to to a headquarters constructing in Popasna in Japanese Ukraine by the group’s proprietor, oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The Wagner media group thoughtfully printed images revealing many particulars of the constructing and its environment—even together with a plaque with a avenue deal with seen on the higher left nook of 1 picture.

As Russian army items more and more grow to be fight ineffective from losses, resignations and normal exhaustion, Wagner mercenaries have come to be on the forefront of Russian offensive operations in Ukraine, together with the seize of Popasna early in Could. Pictures displaying the mutilated physique and severed palms and head of a Ukrainian POW mounted on poles close to Popasna’s metropolis middle have been printed in August.

Increasingly Russian items lack the coaching and motivation to grab defended positions in shut fight, so mercenaries from the Wagner community, regional volunteer items, and some different specialist formations have served as shock troops, and suffered correspondingly heavy losses. However Wagner casualties don’t depend as Russian army losses and may be swept beneath the rug due to non-disclosure agreements tied to massive funds to households of the deceased.

Nonetheless, successfully publicizing the deal with of a Wagner HQ was a curious alternative, on condition that Ukraine had been making conspicuous and efficient use of M31 rockets launched by HIMARS techniques newly provided by the U.S. These are designed to strike particular GPS coordinates with pin-point accuracy.

On Sunday, August 14 the Wagner-affiliated Telegram account Reverse Facet Of The Medal posted a picture displaying that the constructing visited by Prigozhin had been gutted by an assault. Russian Telegram posts indicated heavy casualties and that the assault “most likely” got here from a HIMARS system.

As Wagner accounts lashed out in recrimination for the compromising images, the unique publish was deleted, too late to forestall their wider dissemination. In reality, the shortage of operational safety implicit within the images of Prigozhin’s go to appeared so brazen some analysts questioned in the event that they have been a part of an elaborate deception.

Nevertheless, this was not the primary time that poor Russian operational safety associated to propaganda footage could have resulted in deadly precision assaults on Russian forces.

In Could, Russian conflict reporter Sasha Kots filmed a strong 2S4 siege mortar hid close to an deserted manufacturing facility because it lobbed shells at Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk. A number of days later, Ukraine recorded the 2S4’s destruction close to the manufacturing facility, as detailed on this earlier article.

Putin’s Chef—And Mercenary Millionaire

Following the assault, Russian army professional Rob Lee famous that Russian social media accounts reported “gentle panic” that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s whereabouts have been unknown, fearing that he could have been wounded or killed contained in the constructing.

Nevertheless, Lee experiences, a number of Russian sources later asserted Prigozhin was alive, with out clarifying his location.

Often called ‘Putin’s Chef’ for his companies as a restaurateur and meals provider, Prigozhin can be Wagner Group’s chief financier and govt. This community of personal mercenary firms is deployed broadly all over the world, serving as a deniable and expendable extension of the Kremlin’s overseas coverage. Mercenary firms are technically unlawful in Russia, so the group’s existence isn’t formally acknowledged regardless of its outstanding presence in locations starting from Ukraine to Mozambique and Venezuela.

Prigozhin governs the mercenary community with accomplice Dmitry Uktin, the operational army chief and founder—a former lieutenant colonel in Russia’s GRU army intelligence company apparently with neo-Nazi tendencies (therefore the group’s naming after the German composer most well-liked by Hitler.)

Prigozhin himself can be wished by the FBI for his position financing and directing the Web Analysis Company, an web troll military which interfered within the U.S. 2016 elections with misinformation and arranged trolling to spice up the candidacy of Donald Trump, who was perceived as extra sympathetic to Moscow.

Moreover, in 2018, U.S. intelligence intercepts recorded Prigozhin telling the Syrian authorities he had permission from Moscow to make use of “quick and robust measures” to ship a “good shock” on February 7-9.

This apparently referred to an assault begun February 7 by Syrian and Wagner forces on an oil subject close to Deir es-Zor defended by Kurdish militias and U.S. particular forces—seize of which might entitle the Russian mercenaries to a 25% lower of the income.

Nevertheless, U.S. warplanes and artillery smashed the attacking forces, killing at a minimal dozens and by some accounts over 100 Wagner mercenaries.

The strike on the Wagner HQ in Popasna will possible impression the group’s operations in Ukraine. Nonetheless, the mercenary community will stay a key reinforcement to Russia’s exhausted common forces, solely a shrinking proportion of which stay able to offensive maneuver operations after a half-year of grinding warfare.