Russia’s Wagner Chief Warns Defense Minister of Coming Ukrainian Attack

Ukrainian servicemen with a M113 armored personnel carrier drive in the town of Chasiv Yar as smoke rises from the direction of Bakhmut on March 20, 2023. (AFP)
Ukrainian servicemen with a M113 armored personnel carrier drive in the town of Chasiv Yar as smoke rises from the direction of Bakhmut on March 20, 2023. (AFP)
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Russia’s Wagner Chief Warns Defense Minister of Coming Ukrainian Attack

Ukrainian servicemen with a M113 armored personnel carrier drive in the town of Chasiv Yar as smoke rises from the direction of Bakhmut on March 20, 2023. (AFP)
Ukrainian servicemen with a M113 armored personnel carrier drive in the town of Chasiv Yar as smoke rises from the direction of Bakhmut on March 20, 2023. (AFP)

Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin told Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in a letter published on Monday that the Ukrainian army was planning an imminent offensive aimed at cutting off his Wagner forces from the main body of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.

In the letter published by his press service, Prigozhin said the "large-scale attack" was planned for late March or the start of April.

"I ask you to take all necessary measures to prevent the Wagner private military company being cut off from the main forces of the Russian army, which will lead to negative consequences for the special military operation," he said, employing the term that Moscow uses for its war in Ukraine.

It was the first time Prigozhin has published such correspondence with the defense minister, whom he has frequently criticized over the conduct of the war.

The unusual move appeared to have two possible aims: to confuse Ukraine commanders and to seek to pin blame on Shoigu, not Prigozhin, if the purported Ukrainian maneuver proved successful.

Prigozhin said he was providing details of the Ukrainian plan and of his own proposal to counter it in an attachment to the letter, which he did not make public. He did not say how he knew of Ukraine's intentions.

He said Wagner forces currently controlled 70% of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which they have been trying to capture since last summer in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.



Iran: Parliament is Preparing Bill to Leave Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty

Smoke billows for the second day from the Shahran oil depot, northwest of Tehran, on June 16, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Smoke billows for the second day from the Shahran oil depot, northwest of Tehran, on June 16, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran: Parliament is Preparing Bill to Leave Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty

Smoke billows for the second day from the Shahran oil depot, northwest of Tehran, on June 16, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Smoke billows for the second day from the Shahran oil depot, northwest of Tehran, on June 16, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iranian parliamentarians are preparing a bill that could push Tehran toward exiting the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the foreign ministry said on Monday, while reiterating Tehran's official stance against developing nuclear weapons.

"In light of recent developments, we will take an appropriate decision. Government has to enforce parliament bills but such a proposal is just being prepared and we will coordinate in the later stages with parliament," the ministry's spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, when asked at a press conference about Tehran potentially leaving the NPT.

The NPT, which Iran ratified in 1970, guarantees countries the right to pursue civilian nuclear power in return for requiring them to forego atomic weapons and cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

Israel began bombing Iran last week, saying Tehran was on the verge of building a nuclear bomb. Iran has always said its nuclear program is peaceful, although the IAEA declared last week that Tehran was in violation of its NPT obligations.

President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated on Monday that nuclear weapons were against a religious edict by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Iran's state media said that no decision on quitting the NPT had yet been made by parliament, while a parliamentarian said that the proposal was at the initial stages of the legal process.

Baghaei said that developments such as Israel's attack "naturally affect the strategic decisions of the state," noting that Israel's attack had followed the IAEA resolution, which he suggested was to blame.

"Those voting for the resolution prepared the ground for the attack," Baghaei said.

Israel, which never joined the NPT, is widely assumed by regional governments to possess nuclear weapons, although it does not confirm or deny this.

"The Zionist regime is the only possessor of weapons of mass destruction in the region," Baghaei said.