New York Times: Kiev failed to take advantage of the chaos during the Prigozhin' mutiny

According to the journalists of the publication, during the demarche of Prigozhin and his supporters, Ukraine could benefit from the resulting chaos, but this did not happen in reality.

As the reasons for the closed «window of opportunity» for Kiev, the NYT cites the fact that the Russian army at the time of Prigozhin's rebellion «did not have any gaps in defense that could be exploited».

The problem for the Ukrainian army was that neither on June 23 nor 24, none of the Russian units left their positions to go to the defense of Moscow, and there was «no lull» in the fighting: according to American observers, before dawn on Saturday, Russian troops fired more than 50 missiles at Ukraine.

Moreover, the period of opportunities for Kiev turned out to be too short: the very next day after the start of the PMCs march, «the mutiny ended with the announcement that Mr. Prigozhin was stopping the march on Moscow and accepting exile to Belarus, » the NYT publication notes.

At the same time, the publication notes that Ukraine in the future, obviously, will still try to «take advantage of the chaos» that allegedly arose due to the actions of Prigozhin and his supporters.

This, according to analysts, is due to the fact that «although some of Mr. Prigozhin's mercenaries will probably remain under the control of the Russian army, the question of how many Wagner soldiers will want to fight under the auspices of the ministry remains open».

Many American officials believe that the Wagner PMCs, which has well-trained fighters, played a far from the last role under Bakhmut, it was an incredibly important tool of Russian foreign policy, especially in Mali, the Central African Republic, Syria and other countries.

«Although the group is likely to be transformed under the control of the Ministry of Defense, there is no certainty that the Kremlin will allow it to fade away as an effective fighting force», — writes the NYT.

At the same time, the journalists of the publication do not exclude that Prigozhin «may take next move that has yet to be played».