Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared in a video purporting to show the dead body of an American soldier in Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Monday night. The mercenary boss also brandished documents allegedly belonging to the man which, if legitimate, would appear to confirm the victim’s U.S. identity. A State Department spokesperson told the Daily Beast they are aware of reports of the death of a U.S. citizen in Bakhmut and that additional information is being sought, adding that the department only had a limited ability to verify such reports. The spokesperson also offered condolences to the families of all those who had been killed as a result of Russia’s war and reiterated advice that Americans should not travel to Ukraine.The grisly video comes after Prigozhin was accused of offering to provide information on the position of Russia’s troops to Ukrainian intelligence in exchange for Kyiv withdrawing its forces from Bakhmut—an offer which was reportedly rejected because of a lack of trust in Prigozhin. On Monday, the Institute for the Study of War nonprofit claimed that the Russian presidential administration is “preparing an information operation to publicly discredit Prigozhin” but is “unlikely to threaten Prigozhin while Wagner forces are on the frontlines.”
