Regarding yesterday's news of Wagner gaining control of Bakhmut: ISW assessment.

[Beastly Boy]

In-depth analysis from Institute for the study of War:

Key Takeaways

- Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin declared victory in Bakhmut City on May 20 and announced his intent to withdraw from the city on May 25.
- Prigozhin’s claimed victory over the remaining areas in Bakhmut is purely symbolic even if true.
- Ukrainian forces continue pressuring Bakhmut’s northern and southern flanks.
- Wagner forces are unlikely to successfully conduct a controlled withdrawal from Bakhmut while in contact with Ukrainian forces within five days without disrupting the Russian MoD’s efforts to prepare for planned Ukrainian counteroffensives.
- Russian conventional forces likely will still need to transfer additional forces to the Bakhmut direction even if Wagner mercenaries remain in Bakhmut.

Also related and of interest:

- The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) is incorporating mobilized and conscripted personnel into its own “Veterany” private military company (PMC), leading to discrimination and conflict.

It appears that Russia's Ministry of Defense is putting together its own private mercenary army to directly compete with Wagner's.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-may-20-2023

Much more at the link

[Hortensis]

1. Wow. Rumors that control's coming apart in Russia, as one expert

mentioned, more people falling out of windows, losing generals. Putin's Wagner group, which he relies on to help help fund the war in Ukraine through violence abroad, is threatening to go (more) renegade. Now ANOTHER mercenary army. And reports of others? How about Gazprom's private military? Reminds me of the Middle Ages.