Wagner’s rebellion: what to remember from the first statements of Yevgeny Prigojine

Wagner’s advance towards Moscow in his rebellion on Saturday revealed “serious security problems” in Russia, his boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday, saying his men had traveled 780 kilometers with little resistance. “The march has brought to light serious security concerns in the country,” Wagner’s leader said in his first audio message since the uprising ended on Saturday night.

The support of Russian civilians

He notes that his men advanced towards the Russian capital, covering 780 kilometers and stopping “just over 200 km from Moscow”. If the boss of Wagner did not go further, it was because he did not want to “shed Russian blood” and “not overthrow the power in the country”. He also assured that he had the support of the civilians he met during his 24-hour epic, which exposed the weaknesses of Russian power. “Civilians came to meet us with Russian flags and Wagner emblems, they were happy when we arrived and passed by them,” he said.

“The purpose of the march was not to allow the destruction of the Wagner Group and to hold accountable those who, through their unprofessional actions, committed a considerable number of errors during the special military operation” in Ukraine, he added. “We demonstrated a high level of organization which should be that of the Russian army,” he added. He repeated that Wagner shot down Russian Air Force aircraft, which Moscow has not confirmed. “We are sorry to have had to fire on the air force, but they were throwing bombs and rockets at us,” he said.

“March for Justice”

Yevgeny Prigojine has for months accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valeri Gerasimov of incompetence and of having sent tens of thousands of soldiers to sacrifice. According to him, the ministry tried to dismantle Wagner by absorbing him, then struck one of his camps, killing thirty. His revolt, which he describes as a “march for justice”, was therefore a “demonstration” of how the offensive in Ukraine should, according to him, have been carried out.

Yevgeny Prigojine did not reveal his whereabouts, while the Kremlin assured that he would leave for Belarus. On the other hand, the boss of the paramilitary group affirmed that President Alexander Lukashenko, who negotiated the end of the mutiny with the agreement of Vladimir Putin, had proposed solutions to allow the survival of Wagner. “Alexander Lukashenko reached out and offered to find solutions for the continuation of the work of the Wagner group in a legal way,” noted Yevgeny Prigojine.