Feud between Russian warlords exposes cracks in Kremlin’s war machine

Attacks on Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin come after his stinging criticism of the Russian defence ministry and as Ukraine is expected to launch a major offensive.

A growing feud between two of Russia’s most powerful warlords has broken out into the open following the withdrawal of the paramilitary Wagner group from eastern Ukrainian flashpoint city Bakhmut, exposing the rifts in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine ahead of an expected Ukrainian offensive.

The rivalry between Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov highlights some of the first public criticism aimed at Prigozhin, who has become one of the biggest thorns in the Kremlin’s side. His star rose in recent months as his troops slowly captured the eastern city of Bakhmut for Moscow, but in doing so Prigozhin spent months accusing the Russian defence ministry of failing to provide his troops with proper ammunition.

The frontline town of Bakhmut has been devastated by sustained attacks. Picture: Reuters.

Earlier this week, as his troops were pulling out of the frontline city – to be replaced by Kadyrov’s forces, Prigozhin poured cold water on the ability of the Chechen forces to take the whole of Ukraine’s Donetsk province. Russia claims the entirety of the province, which it refers to as the Donetsk People’s Republic, or DNR, as its own but still lacks complete control of the territory.

“Regarding the liberation of various towns and villages, I think they have the forces for it, but it’s not worth it for them to free all of DNR,” said Prigozhin in a statement on his Telegram channel. “They will occupy certain areas.”

The comments started a firestorm among Kadyrov’s loyalists, including his longtime ally Adam Delimkhanov, who threatened Prigozhin to meet in person to clear up any misunderstandings about their capabilities.

“Of course, Yevgeny, you don’t understand this, and you needn’t understand,” Delimkhanov said in a video posted to Telegram. “You can get in touch anytime and name the place where we can meet to explain whatever it is you don’t get.”

Yevgeny Prigozhin holds a Russian national flag in front of his soldiers holding Wagner Group's flags in Bakhmut. Picture: AFP.

Another Kadyrov loyalist, Magomed Daudov, said Prigozhin was sowing panic among the population through his complaints about the defence ministry.

The deployment of Kadyrov’s troops, which are officially a part of the national guard but answer directly to him, could undermine Prigozhin’s position both on the battlefield and more broadly in Russian society, where he has gained a following for his public, and often expletive-laden, rants against what he called a corrupt and inefficient Russian military.

The use of Kadyrov’s forces to relieve the Wagner troops could also be a ploy by the Kremlin to escalate the rivalry between the two warlords, who joined forces last year to criticise the Russian defence ministry after regular forces repeatedly failed to strengthen the front lines and allow Ukrainian troops to make significant gains.

“The Kremlin may also be attempting to sever Kadyrov’s relationship with Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin and re-emphasise federal authority over Chechen forces,” the Institute for the Study of War wrote earlier this week.

Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov attends a ceremony formally annexing four regions of Ukraine. Picture: SPUTNIK / AFP.

Kadyrov, who became leader of Chechnya in 2007, depends wholly on the support of Putin. The public feud gives him a chance to reclaim his place as the president’s loyal foot soldier, a term he uses regularly to describe himself.

While Kadyrov and many of his allies fought against Moscow for an independent Chechnya following the fall of the Soviet Union, his father and he changed sides in a later conflict that Moscow won, returning federal control over the mountainous, mostly Muslim region and installing the Kadyrov family as its leaders.

Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin, who fought against Kadyrov in the first Chechen War, referred to the conflict in his own response to the Chechen leader’s supporters.

“We are always ready to meet man-to-man as we’re already acquainted from the first and second Chechen wars,” he wrote in a statement carried on Telegram.

The feud has erupted as Ukraine is expected to launch a major offensive aimed at reclaiming swaths of Russian-occupied territory in the country’s south and east.

The arrival of Kadyrov’s forces will be the first time in nearly a year that they will be operating on the front line.

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