(NewsNation) — Russia continues to use military contractors as part of the Wagner Group during the war with Ukraine; however, in a statement early Friday, the owner of the group criticized Russian leaders for a lack of equipment and for the group’s heavy losses.
The owner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, even said he may pull his troops out of Bakhmut next week.
John Bolton, the former national security advisor for former President Donald Trump and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told NewsNation’s Adrienne Bankert on “Morning in America” that this pushback is a bad sign for the Russian war effort.
“It may be that there is an internal struggle going on between the regular military and the Wagner Group and that they are being starved of ammunition because their troops are basically cannon fodder. It certainly doesn’t reflect well on Russia overall that they spent all this effort with so little gain in the past several weeks and months,” Bolton said.
However, while the war in Ukraine is ongoing and devastating, Americans fear that Russia will use nuclear weapons on the U.S.
Bolton said he doesn’t see any prospect of the use of tactical nuclear weapons by Moscow in Ukraine, nor does he see any possibility of Putin using nuclear weapons against the U.S.
“Where the Russians have been very successful, however, is intimidating the West, deterring NATO by this saber-rattling of their nuclear capability,” Bolton said.
NewsNation correspondent Tom Dempsey contributed to this report.