“It wasn’t about a change of power”
Prigozhin reports for the first time since disappearing
06/26/2023, 6:10 p.m
Since Wagner boss Prigozhin ended the uprising in Russia last Saturday, there has been no trace of him. Now he speaks up for the first time: He was not concerned with overthrowing the Russian government – but with saving his group of mercenaries.
After the escalation of the power struggle between Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Russian Defense Ministry last Friday, the mercenary chief was initially silent. Since the 62-year-old declared the uprising of his troops to be over on Saturday, allegedly to avert a major bloodbath in Russia, there has been no trace of him. Now Prigozhin speaks up again on Telegram – and explains the reasons for the action. According to him, it was “not about overthrowing the Russian authorities”, but about a demonstration “against the destruction” of his Wagner group and against what he saw as poor Russian warfare. However, he did not provide any information about his location or how things will continue with him and his mercenary troop.
The background to the action was the request by the Russian Ministry of Defense to the Wagner mercenaries to officially join the Russian armed forces. “The employees all refused to sign the contract with the defense ministry, only one to two percent decided to join the Russian army,” Prigozhin said. Every mercenary knows that joining the army “would lead to a total loss of combat effectiveness”.
On July 1st, according to the Wagner boss in his eleven-minute voice message, his unit was to be disbanded. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had issued a corresponding order weeks earlier. Even then, Prigozhin had rejected the request.
In his message, he reiterated his allegations against the Russian Defense Ministry for shelling mercenary military camps last Friday. According to him, 30 Wagner fighters were killed. In addition to the dissolution of the Wagner troupe intended by the ministry, this was the trigger for the march towards Moscow.
Prigozhin praises Lukashenko
Prigozhin, who was long considered a confidant of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, criticized that his troops had been shot at on the way to Moscow. He acknowledged that the advance had claimed casualties. “During our march, not a single soldier was killed on the ground. We regret that we were forced to shoot down flying objects – but that’s because they bombed us,” he said. According to reports from Russian military bloggers, six helicopters and one Russian army plane were destroyed and their crews killed in the clash. Officially, the Russian leadership has not acknowledged these losses.
The advance had revealed significant security deficiencies in Russia, the mercenary boss also emphasized. Prigozhin had advanced from the Ukrainian border to Moscow with his heavily armed mercenaries. Apparently there had been no attempts to stop him for many hundreds of kilometers. The mercenaries “blocked all military infrastructure” including air bases along the route, Prigozhin said. At the same time, he assured that civilians in towns along the route had supported his people. “The civilians came towards us with Russian flags and Wagner badges, they were happy when we arrived and passed them.” Prigozhin praised the march on Moscow as an example of how the attack on Ukraine ordered by Putin on February 24, 2022 should have taken place.
It was only after hectic negotiations about Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that the mercenary boss called off the advance around 24 hours on Saturday afternoon. Lukashenko prevented bloodshed in Russia, Prigozhin praised the Belarusian President in his voice message.
The Russian government initially promised the mercenary chief amnesty and emigration to Belarus. However, the Russian public prosecutor’s office said on Monday that Prigozhin would be further investigated.