Washington Post: Yevgeny Prigozhin warned Syrian officials in late January about a “fast and strong” offensive in Syria

US intelligence agencies intercepted communications between Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who told a senior Syrian official that he had “received permission” from an unnamed Russian minister to advance “quickly and strongly” in Syria. about this writes The Washington Post with reference to intelligence data.

According to the newspaper, this conversation took place on January 24. Later, on January 30, Prigozhin said he had a “good surprise” for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The businessman promised that the “surprise” would become known between February 6 and February 9. Syrian Presidential Affairs Minister Muhammad Fadlallah Azzam, in turn, assured that Prigozhin’s work would be paid.

According to the newspaper, during this period of time Prigozhin began to often talk with officials from the Russian presidential administration, in particular, with the head of the administration Anton Vaino and his deputy Vladimir Ostrovenko. The special services did not establish what exactly was discussed. However, it is known that negotiations lasted until February 5 and resumed after the strike by the US-led coalition.

In February, several media sources reported that Russian mercenaries came under coalition attack on February 7. Bloomberg wrote that the strike killed more than 200 mercenaries, most of them Russians, Reuters reported 100 dead, Vedomosti reported 50 killed mercenaries.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs admitted that five Russians who were not related to active Russian military personnel could have died during the attack. Later, the department reported that several dozen citizens of Russia and the CIS countries were injured during the “recent military clash” in Syria.

The research group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) named several Russians who died during the attack by coalition troops. All of them, according to the group, were mercenaries of the Wagner PMC, which is associated with Prigozhin. According to estimates Republic , PMCs employ about 3.6 thousand mercenaries.