Over the winter the Russian military wanted to reduce attrition in its own units, so it allowed Wagner to take control of a large number of mobilized prisoners to basically continue the pressure on the Ukrainians without pushing that attrition onto them. As a result, they were receiving a lot of equipment provided by the GRU through the Russian Ministry of Defence. That was removed once the Russian military got back in the driving seat. Prigozhin has fairly consistently been used as a critic, not of Putin but of the defence minister, Shoigu, and General Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff. He is doing that as an outrider for a different faction within the Kremlin. I could go into the details of who they are, but it is probably too specific for this committee. However, there is a certain amount of infighting and politics—
On April 21st, 2023. See this statement in context.