President Putin needs mercenaries, but he will be very wary of the risks associated with large, potentially mutinous groups of fighters. By offering sanctuary in Belarus, Vladimir Putin can outsource the problem to President Lukashenko, strengthen domestic Russian security, and then focus on his Ukraine-Belarus campaign. What the president appears to be doing at this stage is to isolate Prigozhin and his co-conspirators. Notwithstanding the disruption caused this past weekend, Mr Putin simply cannot afford to rely solely on his regular army alone. However, President Putin has relied heavily on mercenary groups to deliver battlefield success - and not only in Ukraine. The Wagner Group was founded and is led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, so it would be natural to expect the Russian MoD contacts with the Wagner Group to be terminated and the fighters to be assimilated into the Russian regular army. As a result, it appears that Prigozhin has betrayed the trust of his long-term friend Vladimir Putin, which will not be easily forgotten or forgiven. There is growing evidence that this was not a spontaneous initiative and that he had planned it for several days. The fallout from Yevgeny Prigozhin's failed "march for justice" toward Moscow this past weekend continues to pose more questions than answers. He added: "He deeply understands Russia and deeply understands the nature of this conflict, that it is not about territories, not about any businesses, not about anything except the main thing… those values for which the United States were created." One of Mr Zelenskyy’s top advisers, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Mr Pence "understands absolutely clearly what Russia is". "But coming here just as a private citizen - being able to really see first-hand the heroism of the Ukrainian soldiers holding the line in those woods, see the heroism of the people here in Irpin that held back the Russian army, to see families whose homes were literally shelled in the midst of an unconscionable and unprovoked Russian invasion - just steels my resolve to do my part, to continue to call for strong American support for our Ukrainian friends and allies." Speaking to NBC, he said: "I believe America's the leader of the free world.
NBC, our US network partner, says Mr Pence met Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit.
It makes him the first Republican candidate to head to Ukraine. Mike Pence, Donald Trump's former vice-president, has made a surprise trip to Ukraine today, NBC has reported.
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