The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which declared the armed uprising against the Russian Ministry of Defense, Yevgeny Prigozhin, confirmed on Saturday (June 24) that he and his troops had reached an important Russian city after crossing the Ukrainian border.
He released a video of himself in RostovonDon, the capital of the Rostov region, at the Russian headquarters monitoring fighting in Ukraine, and claimed his forces had military installations in the city under their control, including the airfield.
Other videos posted on social media showed military vehicles, including tanks, on the streets.
Russian security services responded to Prigozhin’s declaration of armed uprising and demanded his arrest. In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin takes the threat, security measures in Moscow and RostovonDon have been tightened. It was not immediately clear how he managed to get to the southern Russian city and how many troops he had at his disposal.
with him.
“We are at the General Staff at 7:30 Moscow time and are inspecting military installations in Rostov, including the airfield,” he said in a video published on his Telegram account.
He remarked: “Normally planes take off for combat missions. Medical planes also depart.
“The main command post is functioning normally, there are no problems, not a single officer has been separated (from his duties). So when you’re told that Wagner disrupted the work and that’s why something collapsed at the front, you know that. “It wasn’t because of that,” he said.
“When we got here, we confirmed a lot of things. A large amount of lost territory, dead soldiers, three to four times more than what is reported in the documents (for the Russian presidency), and what is reported is ten times less than what is reported in the documents. is said on TV,” he said.
According to Prigozhin, casualties on some days amount to 1,000, including “dead, missing, wounded and socalled ‘deserters’ who refuse to fight, not because they are intimidated, but because they have no other way out: they have no ammunition, they “have no command”.
“The chief of staff fled here as soon as he heard we were approaching the building,” he added.
Earlier, another Telegram channel linked to Wagner published a video of a meeting between Prigozhin in RostovonDon with Deputy Defense Minister YunusBek Evkurov and Deputy Chief of Staff Vladimir Alexeyev.
“Mercenaries will advance towards Moscow”
Prigozhin declared that as long as Wagner did not “capture Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, his mercenaries would blockade the city of Rostov” and “advance toward Moscow.”
While the outcome of the game is still open, it is likely that he will
likely to further damage Moscow’s war effort as Kiev’s forces test Russian defenses in the early stages of a counteroffensive.
The dispute could also affect Russian President Vladimir Putin and his ability to maintain a united front.
Wagner Group forces played a crucial role in the Russian War in Ukraine, successfully capturing Bakhmut, the city that was the epicenter of some of the bloodiest and longest battles since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
But Prigozhin has repeatedly criticized Russia’s military leadership, accusing it of incompetence and withholding arms and ammunition from its troops.
Allegations of a Russian attack
This Friday, Prigozhin again sharply criticized the Russian military leadership and accused the Russian army of carrying out attacks on their mercenary camps, which claimed “a great many victims”. The allegations were denied by the Russian Defense Ministry.
“They carried out attacks, rocket attacks, in the back of our camps. A very large number of our fighters were killed,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message from his press service.
Prigozhin also assured that he would take revenge for these attacks, which, according to the leader of the Wagner group, were ordered by the Russian defense minister.
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s message was accompanied by a video lasting about a minute showing a destroyed forest, some fires and at least the body of one soldier.
The Wagner Group chief also said the “evil” of Russia’s military leadership must be “stopped” and said he had thousands of combatready soldiers.
“The CommanderinChief of the Wagner Group has made a decision: the damage done by the country’s military leadership must be stopped. They neglect the lives of the soldiers. You forgot the word ‘justice’ and we will bring it back. Those who destroyed ours.” Today’s soldiers, men who destroyed tens of thousands of Russian soldiers’ lives will be punished. Anyone who tries to resist we will consider a threat and destroy them immediately, including any checkpoints in our path. After doing what we started doing, we will return to the front lines to protect our homeland. We will deal with those who destroy Russian soldiers. And we will return to the front. Justice in the army will be restored. And after that, justice for all Russia, “explained the head of the Wagner group.
The allegations were denied by the Russian Defense Ministry. “The news and videos published by Prigozhin on social media about alleged ‘attacks by the Russian Defense Ministry on the rear bases of the Wagner paramilitary group’ do not correspond to reality and are a provocation,” the ministry said in a statement.
Prigozhin later stated that his intention was not to carry out a coup but to organize a “march for justice”.
“There is no command, there are no military successes”
Also on Friday, Prigozhin said the Russian army was retreating in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, and accused the Russian Defense Ministry of misleading Putin about the real situation at the front. “The armed forces of Ukraine are destroying the Russian army. While we are bathing in blood, no one sends reserves, there is no command,” Prigozhin said in a video published on Telegram. “There is no command, there are no military victories, the Department of Defense directive completely misleads the President,” he added.
In the same video, the Wagner boss openly attacked the Russian Defense Ministry and in particular Minister Sergei Shoigu, whom he described as “a trembling little grandpa” who should be tried for the deaths of “tens of thousands of young people”. “It’s a mediocre planned operation,” he explained.
According to Prigozhin, the operation would have been successful if very serious planning mistakes had not been made, “or naked and barefoot soldiers had not been sent to the front”.
Referring to the current situation, he noted that the Defense Department’s “sovereign lies” continue and that the truth will come out “when these scum realize they’ve lost a colossal piece of territory and say they’ve agreed to more favorable terms.” has reformed.” Positions”.
md (EFE, AP)