It seems that Ukraine also has things in order in the west of the country, concludes Hahn. What will happen on both sides in the coming weeks is very exciting, according to Hahn. “Both have to relieve their own people. Everything is possible, even the new day begins again full of psychological operations and an information war that we go through.’
It is still unclear what the situation is in Belgorod, where a freedom army claims to occupy a small part of Russia. A pro-Russian blogger acknowledged in Prigozhin’s presence that the Russian military is apparently incapable of putting down an uprising. For the moment, Ukraine is silent and claims that it is not directly involved in the freedom army. Although the Russian Defense Ministry reports that “all seventy Ukrainian terrorists have been eliminated,” according to Europe reporter Geert Jan Hahn, it appears that the Russian military and police still have no control over the situation in Belgorod.
“The Belgorod situation is not clear”
Russian opposition politician Ilya Ponomarev, who lives in Kiev and leads one of Russia’s freedom armies, has meanwhile become an integral part of the international media. In an interview with Andrew Marr on LBC, Ponomarev reports that the Security Service of Ukraine has a hand in training and supplying weapons to the Freedom Army, which consists of two regiments, Hahn says. “The small regiment made up of far-right activists includes people who defected to Ukraine in 2014 and joined the Azov battalion. The other regiment is more of a political movement or party, formed by former Russian soldiers.”
“On the one hand there are the warmongers who would like to see it go full steam ahead in Ukraine, on the other hand there are people who prefer to sit quietly in their garden.”
Prigozhin predicts that more and more people in Russia will rise up against the Russian regime. It even refers to a revolution à la 1917. You can see them as seed plants, says Hahn. ‘He sees that the Russian people are in doubt as to what should be done. On the one hand there are the warmongers who like to see the Ukraine go full steam ahead, on the other hand there are people who prefer to sit quietly in their garden. Progoshin especially requires attention. If he were really that close to Putin, he might as well contact him himself. We shouldn’t even overestimate the power of him, but he’s once again screwing up the MoD.”