Ukrainian Forces Photobombed Russian Mercenaries—With Rockets

‘Photobombing’ refers to a situation wherein a stranger interposes themselves into a photo to prank the subjects. But recently Ukrainian troops practiced a more literal kind of photobombing by interposing precision-guided munitions with the subjects of Russian propaganda imagery.

On August 9, Telegram channels associated with Russia’s Wagner mercenary group posted photos portraying a visit to a headquarters building in Popasna in Eastern Ukraine by the group’s owner, oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The Wagner media team thoughtfully published photos revealing many details of the building and its surroundings—even including a plaque with a street address visible on the upper left corner of one image.

As Russian military units increasingly become combat ineffective from losses, resignations and general exhaustion, Wagner mercenaries have come to be at the forefront of Russian offensive operations in Ukraine, including the capture of Popasna early in May. Photos showing the mutilated body and severed hands and head of a Ukrainian POW mounted on poles near Popasna’s city center were published in August.

More and more Russian units lack the training and motivation to seize defended positions in close combat, so mercenaries from the Wagner network, regional volunteer units, and a few other specialist formations have served as shock troops, and suffered correspondingly heavy losses. But Wagner casualties don’t count as Russian military losses and can be swept under the rug thanks to non-disclosure agreements tied to large payments to families of the deceased.

Nonetheless, effectively publicizing the address of a Wagner HQ was a curious choice, given that Ukraine had been making conspicuous and effective use of M31 rockets launched by HIMARS systems newly supplied by the U.S. These are designed to strike specific GPS coordinates with pin-point accuracy.

On Sunday, August 14 the Wagner-affiliated Telegram account Reverse Side Of The Medal posted an image showing that the building visited by Prigozhin had been gutted by an attack. Russian Telegram posts indicated heavy casualties and that the attack “probably” came from a HIMARS system.

As Wagner accounts lashed out in recrimination for the compromising photos, the original post was deleted, too late to prevent their wider dissemination. In fact, the lack of operational security implicit in the photos of Prigozhin’s visit seemed so brazen some analysts wondered if they were part of an elaborate deception.

However, this was not the first time that poor Russian operational security related to propaganda footage may have resulted in lethal precision attacks on Russian forces.

In May, Russian war reporter Sasha Kots filmed a powerful 2S4 siege mortar concealed near an abandoned factory as it lobbed shells at Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk. A few days later, Ukraine recorded the 2S4’s destruction near the factory, as detailed in this earlier article.

Putin’s Chef—And Mercenary Millionaire

Following the attack, Russian military expert Rob Lee noted that Russian social media accounts reported “mild panic” that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s whereabouts were unknown, fearing that he may have been wounded or killed inside the building.

However, Lee reports, multiple Russian sources later asserted Prigozhin was alive, without clarifying his location.

Known as ‘Putin’s Chef’ for his businesses as a restaurateur and food supplier, Prigozhin is also Wagner Group’s chief financier and executive. This network of private mercenary companies is deployed broadly around the world, serving as a deniable and expendable extension of the Kremlin’s foreign policy. Mercenary companies are technically illegal in Russia, so the group’s existence is not officially acknowledged despite its prominent presence in places ranging from Ukraine to Mozambique and Venezuela.

Prigozhin governs the mercenary network with partner Dmitry Uktin, the operational military leader and founder—a former lieutenant colonel in Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency apparently with neo-Nazi tendencies (hence the group’s naming after the German composer preferred by Hitler.)

Prigozhin himself is also wanted by the FBI for his role financing and directing the Internet Research Agency, an internet troll army which interfered in the U.S. 2016 elections with misinformation and organized trolling to boost the candidacy of Donald Trump, who was perceived as more sympathetic to Moscow.

Furthermore, in 2018, U.S. intelligence intercepts recorded Prigozhin telling the Syrian government he had permission from Moscow to use “fast and strong measures” to deliver a “good surprise” on February 7-9.

This apparently referred to an attack begun February 7 by Syrian and Wagner forces on an oil field near Deir es-Zor defended by Kurdish militias and U.S. special forces—capture of which would entitle the Russian mercenaries to a 25% cut of the profits.

However, U.S. warplanes and artillery smashed the attacking forces, killing at a minimum dozens and by some accounts over a hundred Wagner mercenaries.

The strike on the Wagner HQ in Popasna will likely impact the group’s operations in Ukraine. Nonetheless, the mercenary network will remain a key reinforcement to Russia’s exhausted regular forces, only a shrinking proportion of which remain capable of offensive maneuver operations after a half-year of grinding warfare.