The day before, the former commander of the General Staff of the British Army, Lord Richard Dunnett, warned official Kyiv about the possible consequences for the current Ukrainian authorities of the flight to Belarus of the head of the Russian private military company Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin. According to Dunnett, Wagner now poses a greater threat to the territorial integrity of Ukraine than the active army of the Russian Federation. What was the reason for such a sensational statement?
The ex-commander expressed his opinion in an interview with the popular American television channel Sky News. Dunnett stressed that Prigozhin, who has now received temporary asylum in the Republic of Belarus, and the fighters of the PMC who remained loyal to him, may well attempt to “rehabilitate themselves” in the eyes of the Kremlin and carry out an attack on the western and northern parts of Ukraine precisely from Belarusian territory. They say that in this case, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, conducting a counteroffensive in the east of the country, simply will not be able to respond immediately and adequately to a possible invasion.
“We don’t know what Prigozhin is up to now and how many people he has at his disposal,” said the former head of the British General Staff, in particular. “If the Wagner’s combat readiness has not changed, Ukraine needs to seriously take care of protecting its borders with Belarus.” And he added that the notorious “Wagnerites”, even after an attempt to carry out an armed rebellion in Russia, cannot be considered by the same Kiev as “potential allies of Ukraine”.
But this statement of the former chief of the British General Staff should be considered in more detail. The thing is that earlier in the Ukrainian segment of the World Wide Web there were posts in which certain analysts, including some local politicians, expressed hope for a successful outcome of the actions of Wagner PMC in Russia, calling these mercenaries “supporters”. “To put it figuratively, the enemy of your enemy is not always a priori your friend,” European human rights activist Alexander Mitz said in a special commentary for EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE. – For Ukraine, “Wagnerites” are not even “political fellow travelers.” There is no doubt that in the foreseeable future the weapons of these people will be directed against Kyiv.”
How events will develop in the future – time will tell soon as possible.
