More than nine months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s victory appears to be slipping away. Russian President Vladimir Putin is still not ready to capitulate and is clinging to his goal as much as he can, especially relying on the help of several armed groups very influential in the conflict, reports La Libre, citing Rador.

“It should be remembered that Vladimir Putin is becoming more and more dependent on those who can bring him victory, namely on Prigozhin, Wagner’s group or Kadyrov’s Chechens,” – assesses researcher Nicolas Gosse for RTBF. “He becomes a hostage to this situation.”

According to an expert from the Royal Higher Defense Institute, some of these groups are determined to go to the end and are ready to do anything to overthrow the Ukrainian troops. Which is clearly a threat to the regime.

Prominent figures of these groups could also have presidential ambitions: “We should not ignore the scenario in which we will have at the head of Russia an even worse leader than Putin, such as Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has now declared political ambitions, from the perspective of creating a political party,” he warns Nicholas Gosse.

“A break-up scenario is also possible now. Social discontent can be so great that it will lead to a rebellion of the population,” he said.