Perfidious Albion Plays its' Best Card Against Putin...

The U.K.: Masters of Soft-Kill

 

...but don't be fooled for a minute that Wagner is "headed towards Mos-Cow."  Rostov on Don was always their objective... to cut Russian supply lines and isolate Crimea.  The only question now is "how long Wagner can hold on to it?"

The British paid off the Wagner mercenaries.  And as Machiavelli said in "The Prince":

Summary: Chapter XII: Concerning Various Kinds of Troops, and Especially Mercenaries 

All princes must build on strong foundations. The two essential components of a strong state are good laws and good armies. Good laws cannot exist without good armies. The presence of a good army, however, indicates the presence of good laws.

There are three types of armies: a prince’s own troops, mercenary troops, and auxiliary troops. Mercenary and auxiliary troops are useless and dangerous. Mercenaries are “disunited, undisciplined, ambitious, and faithless.” Because their only motivation is monetary, they are generally not effective in battle and have low morale. Mercenary commanders are either skilled or unskilled. Unskilled commanders are worthless, but skilled commanders cannot be trusted to suppress their own ambition. It is far more preferable for a prince to command his own army.

Historically, dependence on mercenaries ruined Italy. During the breakup of Italy, which the Church supported in hopes of increasing its own stature, many townships hired mercenaries because they had little experience in military matters. Since the mercenaries were more concerned with increasing their own prestige and status than with taking risks or accomplishing military objectives, the conflicts between these mercenary forces devolved into a series of ineffective, staged, pseudo-battles, ultimately degrading Italy’s political and military might.