Russian mercenary chief: Declare victory in Ukraine and get out

The head of Russia’s shadowy mercenary force The Wagner Group is recommending a strategy in Ukraine once proposed by U.S. officials for the bogged-down war in Vietnam: Just declare victory and call it quits.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose fighters have fought alongside Russian regular troops even as he has criticized their performance in the nearly 15-month invasion, wrote on his blog over the weekend that the Kremlin should just declare its objectives achieved and call a halt to the fighting.

Mr. Prigozhin, who has a close but complicated relationship with President Vladimir Putin, warned that a long, draining war could be disastrous for Russia and for the reputation of its military.

He also accused many top Russian officials and elites of having already written off the war as a lost cause.

“For the [Russian] authorities and for society as a whole, today it is necessary to put a decisive end to the [war],” he wrote. “The ideal option is to … inform everyone that Russia has achieved the results that it planned, and in a sense we have actually achieved them.”

He accused the Russian “deep state” of failing to support the war after the early hopes of a quick victory faded.

“Many of those who supported the special operation yesterday are now in doubt, or categorically against what is happening,” he wrote, according to an account on the Russian-language news site Svoboda.org. “Representatives of the deep state want to urgently return to their normal life, old habits and comfort.”

Wagner Group and Russian military forces are both operating in the fiercest battle now underway in the war — the bloody struggle for control of the eastern Ukrainian industrial city of Bakhmut. Russian forces over the weekend reportedly continued to press ahead, but still have not been able to oust a determined Ukrainian defensive force in the city.

But Mr. Prigozhin in his blog post — a series of answers to recent questions posed to him by journalists — said Mr. Putin’s original goal of seizing all of Ukraine and deposing its government is “unlikely,” and warned a widely expected Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming days could reverse the small territorial gains Russia has achieved since the February 2022 invasion.

“In this case, in the [Russian] army, which for years considered itself one of the best armies in the world, despair may set in and then the situation degrades,” he warned.

Mr. Prigozhin stepped up his criticism of rivals inside Russia over the conduct of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, accusing them of essentially undermining the war effort.

“At meetings, they are silent, expressing their doubts,” he said. “And when making decisions on bureaucratic procedures, certain actions aimed at winning are hindered.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government has insisted that any peace deal include the full return of all Ukrainian lands now occupied by Russia in the eastern Donbas region and in Crimea.

In a national address Sunday to mark Orthodox Easter, Mr. Zelenskyy praised the nation’s unity in the face of Russian aggression.

“Belief in victory unites all of us always, and especially today,” Mr. Zelenskyy said. “We are one big family — Ukrainians. We have one big home — Ukraine. We have one big goal — victory for all.”

While fighting goes on and Russian forces continued sporadic shelling of Ukrainian cities, the two sides did agree to another round of prisoner exchanges to mark the holiday, with more than 100 POWs from each side being reportedly returned home.

But the war continues to be a brutal reality for ordinary Ukrainians: Kyiv’s main security service last week issued a statement urging residents not to linger in churches on Sunday, in part to minimize security risks, The Associated Press reported.