Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary company, has suddenly announced that he will not sign a contract with his country’s Ministry of Defense.”The Wagner Group will not sign any contract with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu먹튀검증,” Prigozin said on Wednesday (local time), Reuters reported.Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, rose to power last year after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, sending mercenaries to the eastern front in Ukraine and achieving some results.However, it has been evaluated that it is gradually being pushed out of the center of power by constantly causing conflict with the Russian regular army.He also protested, saying that the mercenaries had been fighting fierce battles for a long time in Bahmut, the most formidable battleground on the Eastern Front, but the Russian Ministry of Defense was refusing to supply them, saying that they had suffered serious losses. He did not hesitate to criticize the Russian military leadership for being incompetent.The Wagner Group withdrew its units from Bahmut last month and handed over its duties to the regular army.Prigogine exposed the conflict even after moving his troops to the rear.The Wagner Group released a video interrogating a Russian soldier on its Telegram channel on the 4th. In the video, the officer identified himself as Lieutenant Colonel Roman Benefitin of the 72nd Mobile Rifle Brigade and said, “I got drunk and fired at Wagner’s vehicle out of personal animosity towards Wagner.”Some observers say that Prigozhin’s announcement that he no longer has a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense reveals that the conflict with the regular army has already reached a point where it cannot be improved at a time when Ukraine’s counteroffensive operation is in full swing.There is also an analysis that Prigozin strongly protested when Defense Minister Shoigu tried to strengthen control over irregular military organizations including the Wagner group.It is reported that Minister Shoigu ordered the irregular troops who voluntarily participated in the war in Ukraine the previous day to sign a contract with the Ministry of National Defense by the end of this month. Regarding this contract order, some Russians analyzed that it contained the intention to control the Wagner Group.