The financier of Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is trying to increase his company's role in Russian military operations in Ukraine in order to establish himself as a central figure in Russia's ultra-nationalist, war-supporting community.

This was reported by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

On December 22, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reported that Wagner's group received a shipment of weapons from North Korea to strengthen Russian forces in Ukraine.

Kirby also said that Prigozhin spends more than $100 million a month to finance Wagner's operations in Ukraine and that the PMK currently has 50,000 people in Ukraine - 10,000 contract workers and 40,000 convicts recruited from Russian prisons.

To increase his influence, Prigozhin is likely trying to use his parallel military structures to provide Russian military capabilities that they currently lack, analysts say.

"Reports of

North Korea supplying arms to the Russian military through Wagner's group

may indicate that Prigozhin is trying to use his private military company to supply foreign weapons that would be more difficult for the Russian Ministry of Defense to purchase officially. Prigozhin is also likely to allocate significant personnel and resources for the Wagner Group's operations in the Bakhmut area in hopes of providing the Russian military with the operational success they have failed to achieve near Bakhmut, as well as in the broader theater of operations in Ukraine," the report said.

Analysts believe Prigozhin is likely to have political ambitions and is seeking to take advantage of the Kremlin's need for more combat-ready forces to gain influence over an ultra-nationalist electorate he hopes to exploit.

It will be recalled that the mercenaries of the private military company "Liga", which is part of the "Wagner" PMC, arrived in Belarus to prepare provocations.

They want to 

shell the territory of the Republic and blame it on the Armed Forces.

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