The ongoing struggle between militia leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Russian Ministry of Defense is constantly delivering new episodes. In the most recent one, Prigozhin makes fun of images with which the military claims to have destroyed German Leopard tanks in Ukraine. On Tuesday, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu cited high numbers of casualties inflicted on Ukrainian forces as part of repelling their "long-promised attack." What was meant was the Ukrainian counteroffensive, about the beginning of which the government in Kiev does not want to inform, according to its own statement. Shoygu particularly emphasized that 28 Ukrainian tanks were destroyed last Monday, including eight German Leopard tanks.

Friedrich Schmidt

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS.

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Immediately, Shoygu's ministry published pictures that were obviously intended to serve as proof of this. The black-and-white images show four vehicles in a field behind houses. One of the vehicles is then fired upon with an anti-tank missile. "Images of the destruction of foreign tank technology, including Leopard tanks," the Ministry of Defense wrote. However, Russian military bloggers immediately doubted that they were really tanks. Rather, they found that the silhouettes of the filmed vehicles pointed to agricultural machinery, namely combine harvesters, as well as a sprinkling tractor from the American manufacturer John Deere, which is very common in Ukraine.

"We will destroy everything that has a curved muzzle"

Prigozhin had intensified the struggle with Shoigu in recent days, among other things, with the demonstration of a brigade commander of the Russian armed forces picked up by his Wagner militia and also demanded that Shoigu be deposed, even shot.

He did not miss the new steep template of the military bloggers. In a sarcastic audio message, the militia leader said that the Ministry of Defense had presented an "impressive work" by Russian anti-tank soldiers. "In these images, you can see crystal clear how the Leopard tanks are moving towards each other in a strange tactical maneuver. These tanks are disguised as agricultural combines. They have muzzles bent downwards." This did not prevent the Russian soldiers from "seeing enemy technology in them." Outrageously, the Ukrainians have learned to disguise tanks as mowers and tankers as mower drivers. "Thank you, guys, for your wonderful work. We will destroy everything that has a curved muzzle."

Where the footage released by the Russian military was taken initially remained unclear, as did the fate of the fired upon vehicle and its driver.