An article in Britain's The Guardian painted a chaotic picture of the Russian leadership. Samantha de Bendern, a research associate at Britain's Chatham House, said it was hard to know who was in control there.
Russia has 4 armies fighting each other; there are the official Russian armed forces, the Wagner militia group, Chechen forces, and Russians opposed to President Vladimir Putin who launched raids across the Ukrainian border on the Belgorod region in late May. The author focused on statements by the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, such as his recent bitter criticism of the army leadership.