“Don’t wait for an invitation”
Prigozhin considers using Wagner in Belgorod
6/3/2023 3:06 p.m
In the fighting on Russian soil in the border region of Belgorod, mercenary leader Prigozhin sees a blatant failure on the part of the military. He is considering using his Wagner troupe there, but fears they could be sitting there “with their bare ass on the frost”.
The head of the Russian private army Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has accused the Ministry of Defense in Moscow of failure in view of the continuous fire from the Ukrainian side in the Belgorod border region. “The ministry is unable to do anything. The ministry is in chaos,” he said, also referring to the deadlock in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The 62-year-old is a confidante of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. He announced that he himself would invade the region, which had been under fire for days, with his Wagner troops, if the Russian military did not “quickly” establish order there. “The area is already being conquered there,” said Prigozhin. “Peaceful people are dying.” The population needs protection. “We will not wait for an invitation,” stressed Prigozhin. However, the Russian military must provide ammunition. “Otherwise, as they say, we’ll be sitting on the frost with our bare ass.”
The governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, today reported massive shelling, including artillery, from the Ukrainian side. There were deaths, injuries and severe damage to buildings. In a lengthy speech published by the Telegram news service, Prigozhin defended his criticism of the Defense Ministry and parts of the Kremlin. Most recently, there have been threats of violence against him from the army unit of Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov. In addition, Prigozhin was asked to refrain from publicly attacking the Defense Ministry.
He cleared up the conflict during a phone call with Kadyrov, said Prigozhin. But he wouldn’t let himself be banned from speaking. The Wagner boss also reiterated that he is sticking to his lawsuit with the Attorney General’s Office against the Ministry of Defense because many of his fighters had been killed due to a lack of ammunition deliveries.
At the same time, Prigozhin accused sections of the Kremlin of wanting to sow discord between Kadyrov’s troops and the Wagner army. “It’s a dangerous game,” he said. “We didn’t open Pandora’s box,” said Prigozhin, referring to the disastrous course of the war. He said once again that he agreed with Kadyrov that general mobilization and martial law were needed to win the war. The Kremlin has so far rejected this.