The leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner on Friday accused the Russian army of having carried out deadly strikes on its fighters behind the Ukrainian front, calling for an uprising against the military command, earning him the immediate target of an investigation. for a call for “armed mutiny”.
“The allegations disseminated in the name of Yevgeny Prigojine have no basis. In connection with these, the FSB [services de sécurité russes] has opened an investigation for calling for an armed mutiny,” the National Anti-Terrorism Committee of Russia said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin “is informed of all the events around[Evguéni] Prigozhin. The necessary measures are being taken,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by TASS as saying.
Previously, the boss of Wagner had claimed that Russian strikes had caused a “very large number of victims” in the ranks of his group. “They carried out strikes, missile strikes, on our rear camps. A very large number of our fighters have been killed,” Yevgeny Prigojine said in an audio message.
He promised to “respond” to these attacks ordered, according to him, by the Russian Minister of Defense, stressing that he was not pleading for a “military coup” but that he wanted a “march for justice “.
These accusations “on supposed ‘strikes by the Russian Ministry of Defense on rear bases of the paramilitary group Wagner’ do not correspond to reality and are a provocation”, retorted the Russian Ministry of Defense in a press release.
This new spectacular exchange between the two entities at the heart of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine once again exposes the deep tensions within Russian forces linked to the Ukrainian conflict.
“The Wagner Group’s command committee has decided that those who have military responsibility for the country must be stopped,” Wagner’s boss also said in an audio message, calling for no “resistance” to his troops and by assuring that the Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, would be “stopped”.
He drove the point home by claiming to have “25,000” fighters and calling on the Russians to “join” them. “We are 25,000 and we are going to determine why chaos reigns in the country. […] Our strategic reserves are the whole army and the whole country,” said Yevgeny Prigojine in an audio message, calling for “an end to the disorder”.
Contradictory remarks
The Russian army is retreating in several sectors of southern and eastern Ukraine, Wagner’s boss had previously indicated on Friday, contradicting the Kremlin’s assertions that the Kiev counter-offensive is a failure.
“The army [russe] withdraws to Zaporizhia and Kherson areas [sud]the Ukrainian Armed Forces are pushing,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview posted on Telegram by his press service.
“The same is happening in Bakhmout, the enemy will penetrate deeper and deeper into our defence,” the businessman added, referring to an eastern town that the Russians claim to have captured but where the Ukrainians say they have progressed on the flanks in recent weeks.
“There is no control, there are no military successes” from Moscow, again scathing Mr. Prigojine, affirming that the Russian soldiers “wash themselves with their blood”, a way of asserting that they suffer heavy losses.
Unverifiable from an independent source, the words of Wagner’s boss in any case contradict those of Vladimir Putin and Sergei Shoigu, according to whom the Russian army “repels” all Ukrainian attacks.
In recent days, Mr. Putin has repeated that the Ukrainian counter-offensive was a failure and that the forces in kyiv had suffered near “catastrophic” losses. Thursday, Mr. Shoigu assured that the Ukrainian army was in the process of “regrouping” after having failed to break through the Russian defenses.
Mr. Prigojine described as “profound deception” the victorious declarations of the Russian Ministry of Defense, accusing the staff of “hiding” the Russian difficulties and losses on the ground.
Proof, however, that the Ukrainian counter-offensive is taken very seriously by Moscow, Mr. Putin spoke several times in a few days on the situation on the battlefield, while he had tended in recent months not to comment on it in detail.
While many opponents and anonymous Russians are in prison for criticizing the conflict in Ukraine, the leader of Wagner openly questioned on Friday the reasons for which the military intervention was launched. “The war was necessary for a group of bastards to be promoted”, he castigated, also accusing “the Russian oligarchs” who “needed the war”, while Kiev was according to him “ready to not any deal.”