Kremlin boss “makes big mistake”
Prigozhin: Wagner mercenaries will not surrender to Putin
06/24/2023, 1:50 p.m
The head of the Wagner mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, openly opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin. He and his fighters would not surrender, even on Putin’s orders. Prigozhin even issued a warning to the head of the Kremlin.
The head of the insurgent Russian mercenary group Wagner has ruled out a capitulation in response to a televised speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Nobody will surrender at the request of the president, the (Russian secret service) FSB or anyone else,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a voice message to the online service Telegram, “because we don’t want the country to continue living with corruption, fraud and bureaucracy.”
Putin had just described the Wagner mercenaries as “traitors” who would “inevitably be punished” in a television address to the nation on Saturday. Putin said he would not allow a civil war in Russia. Without naming his name, Putin accused the head of the mercenary group of having “betrayed” his country because of “excessive ambition”. “The president is making a big mistake when he speaks of treason. The president is grossly mistaken,” Prigozhin replied in his voice message. “We are patriots of our fatherland,” the head of the mercenary group continued. “We fought and are fighting for it.”
The Wagner boss, a longtime confidant of Putin, called for an uprising against the army leadership in Moscow on Friday and, according to his own statements, invaded Russia with his mercenaries from Ukraine. According to Prigozhin, the mercenaries were in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday, where they took control of military installations, including an airfield. At noon, the Russian army reported the first combat operations in the Voronezh region, which is halfway between Moscow and Rostov-on-Don. Russian heads of parliament and Moscow-appointed administrative officials in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine pledged their support to Putin.