Propaganda glitch in Russia: headquarters of the Wagner Group probably destroyed because of a photo

Created: 08/22/2022, 18:58

Already on June 10, a base of the Russian mercenary group Wagner in the Luhansk region is said to have been destroyed.

Now, apparently, the headquarters were also destroyed.

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Ukrainian forces apparently destroyed a base of the Russian mercenary group Wagner.

A pro-Kremlin journalist accidentally revealed the location on social media.

Popasna - In Russia's brutal war of aggression, Ukraine has had surprise successes in recent weeks - albeit not officially.

Kyiv has so far denied having anything to do with the attacks in Crimea.

There is also a lot of speculation about the assassination attempt on Darja Dugina.

Now the headquarters of the Russian mercenary group Wagner in the city of Popasna is said to have been hit - and of all things due to the mistake of a journalist loyal to the Kremlin.

But a military analyst doubts Russia made a mistake.

Journalist loyal to the Kremlin posts a picture on social media - and reveals the location of the Wagner headquarters

The internet never forgets, they say.

Apparently, the pro-Russian war correspondent Sergei Sreda had the same experience.

He accompanied the notorious Wagner mercenary group in the Ukraine war and uploaded a picture to social media on August 8 showing five fighters in front of the headquarters.

But not only that: In the upper left corner of the photo the address in the town of Popasna was clearly visible.

12 Myronivska Street stood there.

Shortly thereafter, the journalist is said to have deleted the picture again, but it was already too late.

The Wagner base had already been targeted by Ukrainian forces, US-funded broadcaster

reported.

Last week, the Ukrainian army announced that it had destroyed the Wagner Group base in a "precision attack".

The attack is said to have killed around 100 Wagner mercenaries, as the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajdaj, announced according to the internet newspaper

.

The information could not be independently verified, but a pro-Russian reporter confirmed the military strike in Popasna on Telegram.

The Wagner mercenary group is considered Russia's "shadow army", which is said to have been deployed in crisis regions such as Syria, Libya and Mali.

The Wagner group is accused of serious human rights violations such as torture and targeted killings.

Moscow officially denies any connection to the mercenary army.

Intention instead of accident?

Military analyst suspects ruse by Russian armed forces

There are also doubts about the theory that it was an oversight on the part of the Russian side.

“Even the dumbest pro-Russian military correspondents know about the ban on filming military installations [and] locations, they know about the possibility of a possible attack on those coordinates [...].

And here they are posing right near the headquarters and even with someone who looks like Prigozhin?” asks military analyst and founder of the NGO Conflict Intelligence Team Ruslan Leviev on Twitter.

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Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, also known as "Putin's cook", is an influential Russian oligarch.

He is considered a close confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is associated with the Wagner group as a financier.

Prigozhin is also said to have been instrumental in establishing the Russian “troll armies” that spread pro-Putin propaganda on the Internet.

In the first reports of the attack on the Wagner headquarters, it was assumed that Prigozhin could also be among the fatalities.

Had this been true, it would have been a heavy blow to Russia.

But the rumors apparently turned out to be false, such as the news portal

reported.

From Leviev's point of view, the "photo op" with Gruppe-Wagner could have been an attempt by the Russian forces to lure out the Ukrainian "HIMARS" in order to determine their location and then destroy them.

HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) is an American artillery system that can fire GPS-guided rockets with a range of around 80 kilometers - depending on the ammunition.

After analyzing the photos and videos of the attack,

assumes that the attack came from near Siwersk in Donetsk Oblast, which is about 30 kilometers north of Popasna as the crow flies.