Kremlin admits Wagner mercenary boss nicknamed 'Putin's chef' is at risk of ... trends now
Russia has admitted that the fearsome boss of the Wagner mercenary group is at risk of assassination.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, nicknamed 'Putin's chef' after providing catering services to the Kremlin, heads up the despot's private army which carries out his dirty work at arm's length from the state.
The warlord's 50,000 fighters have been accused of a litany of war crimes and their successes in Ukraine have led to a power struggle between the oligarch and Putin.
Prigozhin said yesterday he had been briefed that Volodymyr Zelensky and CIA director William Burns had discussed the possibility of assassinating him.
Yevgeny Prigozhin is pictured providing catering services to Vladimir Putin in 2011. He now heads the Wagner Group
And asked today in a press conference, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the Wagner chief is at risk.
He said: 'This is more of a question for the special services.
'But as for assassination attempts, Ukraine is involved in both assassination attempts and an absolutely monstrous murder.
'Let's remember the assassination attempts that took place. Let's remember the murder of [Daria] Dugina and so forth.
'The involvement of the Kyiv regime in such assassination attempts is obvious, so there is such a danger to our citizens.'
Vladimir Rogov, a puppet leader in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, made the initial claims about Western collusion to oust Prigozhin.
Ukrainian servicemen fire a 2S7 Pion self-propelled gun toward Russian positions in Bakhmut
Ukrainian soldiers are seen on their ways to frontlines with their armoured military vehicles as the strikes continue on the Donbass frontline
He said, referencing an apparent meeting between the Ukrainian president and the CIA director: 'One of the requests Zelensky made was the murder of the Wagner boss, Mr Prigozhin.'
The Wagner chief then joked that killing him is a 'very good idea', relishing his status.
Some believe that an even greater threat to his safety lies in Moscow than in Ukraine.
Prigozhin recently dismissed Putin's generals as a 'bunch of clowns' and has boasted that his mercenary army is superior to the Russian Armed Forces.
His relations with Putin are increasingly strained, say reports, but Prigozhin continues to taunt the Kremlin president and his army top brass as his Wagner mercenaries and Ukrainian forces remain locked in battle over the city of Bakhmut.
Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has risked further angering Vladimir Putin by dismissing Moscow's generals as 'a bunch of clowns' while boasting his mercenary army is superior to the Russian Armed Forces. Pictured: Prigozhin is seen in footage speaking to Wagner fighters
Ambitious henchman Yevgeny Prigozhin - who runs the 50,000-strong Wagner private army - is increasingly seen as posing a rising threat to Russian president Vladimir Putin with his daily grandstanding and outspoken boasts. Pictured: Prigozhin (left) and Putin together in 2010
The Wagner boss claimed his ragbag fighters, who are mostly convicts plucked from prison and put into uniforms, have achieved heroics greater than Soviet soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad, a key military turning point in the Second World War.
He has also openly mocked General Valery Gerasimov - the Russian commander-in-chief - who ordered that Russian soldiers should shave off their beards as part of a discipline drive in the armed forces.
Russia's defence chiefs were 'a bunch of clowns' seeking the 'glamorisation of the army', raged Prigozhin, a Soviet-era jail inmate who came to fame arranging banquets and managing online troll factories for Putin.
'Female war correspondents go into the absolute heat of [war],' said Prigozhin.
'Jail inmates fight better than units of the Guards. Servicemen with broken spines pass on their military experience at training camps, moving around like robots.
'And a bunch of clowns try to
