Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin's demise spells "bad news" on the Ukrainian battlefield and an "ugly reality" for the West, an ex-intelligence officer on the Defense Intelligence Agency has claimed.

The shadowy warning comes as Russian authorities on Sunday confirmed the demise of Prigozhin, who was on board a aircraft that crashed between Moscow and St. Petersburg final week.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement within the Wagner chief's premature demise, nonetheless, it is extensively believed that Vladimir Putin performed a hand, given the suspicious timing.

The brutal mercenary chief appeared to have escaped any retribution for the riot he led two months prior that posed the best problem to Putin’s authority in his 23-year rule.

The world could by no means resolve what occurred to Prigozhin however his demise will nonetheless ship "immense reverberations" by means of Ukraine because the war-torn nation makes an attempt to repel Russian forces from its land, in keeping with Matt Shoemaker, ex-Intelligence Officer on the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"The dangerous news for Ukraine is that Prigozhin's demise means Russia's conflict in Ukraine is more likely to proceed the grinding conflict of attrition," he advised Daily Express US.

Mr Shoemaker believes Prigozhin's riot in June confirmed the primary critical risk to the survival of the Russian regime since Putin took workplace.

"Had Prigozhin succeeded in eradicating prime Kremlin officers, it is fairly doable the conflict in Ukraine might have come to an early finish," the ex-DIA officer defined.

However, with the Wagner chief now out of the image, Putin can redouble his efforts in Ukraine, Mr Shoemaker warned.

He defined: "The ugly reality for the West is that there are few moments in history where one can point to and note that that moment changed human history: Prigozhin's death is one of them.

"Prigozhin had positioned himself to be the most probably successor to Putin when Putin finally leaves workplace. However, together with his savagery and brutality, Prigozhin in some ways was the repository and expression of probably the most virulent hatreds which have corroded the human spirit.

"His savagery was in some ways Stalinesque as he fetishized the brutal murders of Ukrainians and Russians alike. If he had change into Russia's chief, it could have been a very harmful growth certainly."

Given how barbarically he handled his countrymen not to mention his enemies, nobody will lose sleep over Prigozhin's demise, the previous DIA officer famous.

However, "Putin has once again removed another threat to his power as he has so many times before in his 24-year reign", Mr Shoemaker stated.

"Ukraine will still have to fight on for its survival like it has for the past year and a half. Prigozhin's death changes little in the short-term day-to-day operations of this war but will have immense reverberations through history."

As if to show a degree, Russian forces struck a restaurant in a key front-line space in northeastern Ukraine inside days of the Wagner chief's demise, killing two civilians and wounding a 3rd, regional officers stated.

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