Wagner forces ‘capture Putin’s army officer’ while Russian tension intensifies

A group of Wagner mercenary soldiers in Ukraine have reportedly captured a lieutenant-colonel in the Russian army.

In a video released by the press office of the private military company (PMC) leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the high-ranking officer ‘confesses’ to being drunk on duty and ordering his soldiers to fire on Wagner troops.

The clip comes amid rising tensions between the Russian state army and the mercenaries that were brought in to assist with some of the most brutal fighting in Ukraine.

Despite both groups ostensibly battling on the same side, relations between them have soured dramatically in recent months, to the extent that Prigozhin has been filmed criticising army chiefs in vitriolic terms.

The latest video shows a man with a nose that appears to be broken identifying himself as Roman Venevitin, commander of Russia’s 72nd Brigade.

Asked by someone behind the camera what he did, he responds: ‘Opened fire on a Wagner PMC vehicle while intoxicated from alcohol.’

When he is asked why, he answers: ‘Due to my personal animosity.’

According to the mercenary group, the shooting damaged a supply truck but no Wagner soldiers were injured.

The apparently captured officer says ‘guilty’ when asked how his actions can be characterised (Credits: Social media/East2West News)

Wagner released a video of its mercenaries clearing mines that it said were distributed by the Russian army in order to kill them (Picture: Social media/East2West News)

The private army has also alleged that the Russian army scattered mines on roads with the intention of killing its fighters, and released a short clip of explosives being cleared.

While the dispute between the two pro-Putin sides extends across Ukraine, the focus appears to be on the eastern city of Bakhmut.

Amid continuing confusion over the extent to which the area is under Russian control, Prigozhin furiously berated state army leaders for a supposed lack of support offered to his soldiers.

In another video, he said: ‘He said: ‘Those territories, which were taken with the blood and lives of our comrades-in-arms for many months, every day, by tens or hundreds of metres are now being thrown almost without a fight by Russian army soldiers who are supposed to hold our flanks.’

He added that the Russian defence ministry deserved the blame for ‘not giving [Wagner fighters] the ammunition they asked for so they can cover the military with firepower’.

Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs, said: ‘We are watching with our own eyes how power in Russia is beginning to fall apart.

‘It is not doing it slowly, but it loudly creaks with his massive rusty carcass as it is heading for civil war.’

At the end of last month, it was announced that Wagner troops would be withdrawing from Bakhmut after 10 months of bloody battles for a city that analysts argue has little strategic value.

Ukraine continues to maintain the site has not fallen into the hands of the enemy though, as speculation mounts that the country’s long-anticipated counteroffensive may have begun.

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A video shows the man identifying himself as the commander of Russia’s 72nd Brigade.