[M T]

Seems like Prigozhin has gotten himself between a rock and a very hard place.  If he fails to take Bakhmut which now seems far more possible than two or three weeks ago, he will be facing the problem of extricating what is left of "Wagner" and trying to alive if Putin decides Wagner should take all the blame for not capturing Bakhmut.  He could of course surrender to Ukranian forces, but he would almost certainly be arrested for war crimes his forces committed.  Hard to see any good options for him.

One can imagine his reason was to avoid war crime trials if he (as alleged) offered to give info to Ukraine.  I'm not sure how much that info is worth to Ukraine as you'd think they have a pretty good idea of where the Russians are.  I don't necessarily believe the allegation.

On the other hand, he could have offered, "Let us escape and we'll help undermine (or fight against) Russian troops."  Tempting, but where would the mercenaries go once they leave the battlefield?

[M T]

Seems like Prigozhin has gotten himself between a rock and a very hard place.  If he fails to take Bakhmut which now seems far more possible than two or three weeks ago, he will be facing the problem of extricating what is left of "Wagner" and trying to alive if Putin decides Wagner should take all the blame for not capturing Bakhmut.  He could of course surrender to Ukranian forces, but he would almost certainly be arrested for war crimes his forces committed.  Hard to see any good options for him.

One can imagine his reason was to avoid war crime trials if he (as alleged) offered to give info to Ukraine.  I'm not sure how much that info is worth to Ukraine as you'd think they have a pretty good idea of where the Russians are.  I don't necessarily believe the allegation.

On the other hand, he could have offered, "Let us escape and we'll help undermine (or fight against) Russian troops."  Tempting, but where would the mercenaries go once they leave the battlefield?