As noted in the report, on March 4, the Russian military department published a video of a rare visit to Ukraine by Minister Sergei Shoigu.
“There is a real possibility that this was partly in response to recent footage of Wagner group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin visiting his fighters on the front lines. Wagner is in a high-profile dispute with the Russian Ministry of Defense, and Shoigu is probably painful about the comparison. with Prigozhin,” the message says.
The only Russian field commander shown in the video was Colonel General Rustam Muradov. It is noteworthy that Muradov is in charge of the Ugledarsky sector of the Donetsk region, where over the past three months several assaults have failed.
According to British intelligence, until recently, the Russian command considered a breakthrough in the Vuhledar region as a key way to achieve an operationally important breakthrough in Ukraine’s positions.
“Russian planners are likely to face a dilemma: make another attempt to storm Vugledar or support fierce fighting north of Bakhmut and Kremennaya,” the British Ministry of Defense believes.
