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Wagner chief offered to give Russian troop locations to Ukraine, leak says

THE DISCORD LEAKS | Yevgeniy Prigozhin said he would tell Ukraine’s military where to attack Russian troops if it pulled its own forces back from the beleaguered city of Bakhmut, where Wagner mercenaries were taking heavy losses

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Updated May 15, 2023 at 10:42 a.m. EDT|Published May 14, 2023 at 7:23 p.m. EDT
In a Friday video statement, head of Wagner Group head Yevgeniy Prigozhin mocked the Russian Defense Ministry's report claiming that its forces regrouped to take more favorable positions, saying they effectively fled and “our flanks are crumbling.” (Yulia Morozova/Reuters)
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In late January, with his mercenary forces dying by the thousands in a fight for the ruined city of Bakhmut, Wagner Group owner Yevgeniy Prigozhin made Ukraine an extraordinary offer.

Prigozhin said that if Ukraine’s commanders withdrew their soldiers from the area around Bakhmut, he would give Kyiv information on Russian troop positions, which Ukraine could use to attack them. Prigozhin conveyed the proposal to his contacts in Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, with whom he has maintained secret communications during the course of the war, according to previously unreported U.S. intelligence documents leaked on the group-chat platform Discord.