He also mocked the Russians for “breaking among themselves who should be credited with any tactical advance”, saying it was “a clear sign of failure for the enemy”.
After a series of embarrassing setbacks, the dispute has eclipsed what would be the Kremlin’s first battlefield success in months.
Within a week, the Defense Ministry announced that it would replace its commanding general in Ukraine after just three months in charge. General Valery Gerasimov replaced General Sergei Surovikin, who will now serve as one of Gerasimov’s deputies.
Prigozhin previously accused Gerasimov, who was involved in the original planning of the invasion, of incompetence, and scathingly criticized top military commanders for blunders in Ukraine.
He has found a powerful ally in Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has deployed elite troops from his southern Russian region to fight in Ukraine and has attacked military leaders and the Kremlin for being too soft and indecisive.
While both have pledged allegiance to Putin, their public attacks on his top generals openly challenged the Kremlin’s monopoly on such criticism, something Russia’s tightly controlled political system had not seen before.
Gerasimov’s appointment shows that Putin «sees a threat» in the pair, Frank Ledwidge, a senior professor of military capabilities and strategy at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, told NBC News on Saturday.
He added that the general was being used as a «human shield» by the Russian leader to «avoid blame for further military disasters.»
Prighozin, who toured Russia’s penal colonies in September to recruit inmates, promising rewards and pardons in exchange for service, has been offering volunteers higher salaries than those available within the Russian military, Ledwidge said.
Once imprisoned himself after being convicted of assault and robbery, Prighozin recently posted a video showing some 20 convicts being allowed to leave the ranks of the fighters after half a year at the front, while leaving in Of course, anyone who breaks ranks will face brutal punishment.
For Rajan Menon, director of the Washington think tank Defense Priorities, the recent turmoil suggests that «there is great chaos at the top of the Russian government and there is a positioning of power.»
He said infighting between the defense ministry and mercenary warlords could temporarily benefit Putin, who could act as an «arbitrator handing things over to various groups» but said this would be «destabilizing» militarily.
«It probably occurred to both Prigozhin and Kadyrov «that if the war ends badly, there could be a post-Putin Russia,» he said.
«Putin has not been this politically vulnerable for some time, if ever,» he said. «I’m not saying he’s about to be ousted, but this is a very difficult situation for him and this is a war he must win.»
Associated Press contributed.
