Russian Fighters In Ukraine Are Killing Each Other Due to Infighting

Russian President Vladimir Putin's soldiers are apparently turning their weapons against each other as his “special military operation” has been reported to be falling apart in the past few weeks.

The conflict between the mobilization draftees and the Russian military escalated when a Wagner fighter gunned down a lieutenant colonel who was a member of the Russian army.

Putin tapped Wagner Group, the source of the new mercenaries including hundreds of prison inmates, amid his strong push to advance on the battlefield in Ukraine.

But the decision backfired as the private military forces and the Russian military have reportedly created a heated feud and have been killing each other.

Two Russian Telegram channels confirmed the incident that happened inside the military operations, although no further details were provided to the public on when or where the gunning happened.

According to the Daily Beast, the gruesome episode between the military forces on Russia’s side is not the first and only instance of infighting.

Just earlier this week, a brawl between the newly drafted military forces and the private fighters sparked at a military base outside Moscow, according to Russian news outlet Baza.

Two dozen contract soldiers were beated by newly drafted troops and were rescued after they locked themselves in a separate room where they called police for help.

The said fight started when some of the contract soldiers demanded the newly arrived private draftees surrender their mobile phones and gear.

“The controversies surrounding the poorly executed partial mobilization, coupled with significant Russian defeats in Kharkiv Oblast and around Lyman, have intensified infighting between pro-Putin Russian nationalist factions and are creating new fractures among voices who speak to Putin’s core constituencies,” the Institute for the Study of War wrote in Tuesday.

“Putin now finds himself in a dilemma. He cannot risk alienating the Kadyrov-Prigozhin camp, as he desperately needs Kadyrov’s Chechen forces and Prigozhin’s Wagner Group mercenaries to fight in Ukraine. Nor can he disenfranchise the MoD establishment, which provides the overwhelming majority of Russian military power in Ukraine and the institutional underpinnings needed to carry out the mobilization order and continue the war,” the ISW added.

The Kremlin, however, is trying to censor what is happening and described the incident as “friendly fire,” according to Gulagu.net, a human rights group.