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Shifting tensions over Ukraine
Signs of war weariness and divided public opinion are increasingly evidenced over the ongoing conflict, argues NICK WRIGHT
DESTRUCTION: Local residents clean the street from broken glass that fell down from the windows of their apartments and shops after a Russian rocket attack in Kiev, Ukraine

THE official Ministry of Defence line on the demise of Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane — that Prigozhin’s death will have a deeply destabilising effect on the Wagner Group — is true only if Wagner was and is an entity separate from the Russian state.

The MoD echoes something of Vladimir Putin’s own evaluation of his former ally by lauding his personal attributes of hyper-activity, exceptional audacity and a drive for results. 

But in overreaching himself in his dash on Moscow Prigozhin demonstrated the reality that the state cannot tolerate a challenge to its monopoly of force. 

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