When it comes to the leadership of the Russian army, Wagner boss Prigozhin doesn’t mince his words. In an interview, the 61-year-old even goes one step further and questions the sense of the attack on Ukraine. He praises the Ukrainian army – and warns of a revolution in Russia.
In an interview, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, once again sharply criticized the Russian military leadership and at the same time praised the Ukrainian army. The 61-year-old did not spare harsh words in the direction of the Russian government and questioned the meaning of the “special operation”, as the war is called in Russia.
The Russian army invaded Ukraine “roughly” in search of the Nazis, said Prigozhin in an interview with political scientist Konstantin Dolgov, who is close to the Kremlin and published on the Rutube platform, the Russian YouTube equivalent. “While we were looking for the Nazis, we killed everyone we could find,” said the Wagner boss. The Kremlin rejects the killings of civilians and claims it is “only” fighting the Ukrainian army.
“When we got closer to Kiev, we shit our pants and took off,” he explained, referring to the lost battle for the Ukrainian capital in the first months of the war. The same thing happened in Kherson – in November last year, Russian troops withdrew from the big city in southern Ukraine, having captured it in the first days of the war.
“Declare a state of war, initiate new mobilizations”
In order for Russia not to lose, it must declare a state of war, initiate new mobilizations and switch the economy to the production of ammunition, said Prigozhin. “We should stop building new roads and infrastructure and instead only work for the war,” Prigozhin demanded.
In order to win the war, Russia would have to “live like North Korea for several years, close all borders, stop pretending, bring young people back from abroad and work hard”. “Then we will come to a conclusion,” said Prigozhin.
“We militarized Ukraine”
Russia missed the goals of the invasion, Prigozhin continued to criticize. The “special military operation” was started with the goal of “denazification” instead “we made Ukraine a nation that is known all over the world,” said the 61-year-old. “As for ‘demilitarization’: Suppose they (the Ukrainians) had 500 tanks at the beginning of ‘special operation’ – now they have 5000. If they had 20,000 fighters then, now they have 400,000. What kind of ‘demilitarization’ is this ‘?” asked the Wagner boss. “Now it turns out that, hell knows how, we militarized Ukraine, on the contrary.”
According to Prigozhin, the Ukrainian army is “one of the strongest” in the world today. She is very well organized and trained, said the Wagner boss. He also praised the Ukrainian secret services and the well-equipped armed forces. “Every system – whether Soviet or NATO – they used successfully.” Prigozhin also spoke highly of the high morale of the Ukrainian soldiers: “They are doing everything to achieve the ultimate goal, just like we did in the Great Patriotic War,” he said, referring to the bitter struggle of the Soviet citizens against Nazi Germany in World War II.
“The main problem is Shoigu and Gerasimov”
The Russian army leadership, on the other hand, sharply criticized Prigozhin. “If the system is set up in such a way that you have to fiddle, then the mercenary group won’t do it,” he said, explaining: “The main problem is Shoigu and Gerasimov.” The defense minister and the supreme commander of Russian troops in Ukraine are said to be the ones who blocked the supply of ammunition to his fighters in Bakhmut, “despite the president’s statement that the shells were there.”
The Wagner boss made similar allegations against the two officials in early May in a video that caused a lot of excitement in Russia. In the clip, Prigozhin stood in front of the bodies of numerous killed mercenaries and accused the army leadership of bearing responsibility for the deaths of many fighters.
20,000 Wagner fighters killed in Bachmut?
In the current interview, Prigozhin for the first time put his own losses in the battle for Bakhmut at around 20,000 fighters killed, half of whom are recruits from prisons. Experts believe the number of deaths will be even higher.
Prigozhin also warned that a revolution could break out in Russia. If the children of ordinary Russians continued to come back in coffins while the children of the elite sunbathed abroad, Russia would face turmoil similar to that of the 1917 revolution that culminated in civil war. According to Prigozhin, the Russians are now in such a situation “where we can very easily fuck up the country.”