Mercenaries, Kadirovites, and FSB
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We know that there is tension among Russian troops. We also know they come from different places in society. It’s not just the army, or the National Guard (Rosgvardya), or the Private Military Contractors, chief among them Wagner.
The tension is also within the army, the regional battalions, chief among them Ramzan Kardirov’s troops, and others. Over the weekend we saw a firefight in Kherson between Kadirovites, FSB, and Wagner Mercenaries. Russians tried to pass this as Ukrainian special forces, near the train station.
Kherson is increasingly under Ukrainian pressure. It’s also having issues with supplies. So a guess here is that a train either had some supplies or was rumored to. Regardless, three formations not under a unified command decided to fight over it. This is based on location and nothing else. Here, are two versions via Telegram. First:
Mercenaries of the Wagner PMC staged a riot in Kherson, Kadirov tried to calm them down
The day before, on September 17, there was a shooting in temporarily occupied Kherson. According to the information of the Ukrainian special services, Kadirov soldiers and mercenaries of PMK Wagner, who were recently recruited by the owner of this private military company in Russian prisons and colonies and who committed a riot, were shooting each other.
the occupiers cannot in any way divide the “spheres of influence” in the occupied territories of Ukraine, they increasingly resort to weapons to resolve “disputes”
Yesterday in Kherson there was a shooting between PMC mercenaries, convicts of the Russian Federation, “Kadyrovtsy” and the FSB.
“The parties aggressively divided the loot before the escape against the backdrop of news about the approach of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” said Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Presidential Office.
Now, why does this matter? First, there is no unity in either mission or command. This is starting to look like every man for himself. Or at least this seems to be the case at the unit level.
Armies that lack cohesion, logistics, and morale are armies on the edge. This is not the first time either, just the most serious. Then there is this. Russia is not…