(This story contains language that the reader may find offensive in paragraph 5.)
MOSCOW (Portal) – Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, warned that if the elite do not take the war seriously, Russia could face a revolution similar to that of 1917 and lose the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has sparked one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War II and the largest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Ukraine is preparing a counter-offensive to push Russian troops back to the borders ahead of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Prigozhin said. Ukraine will try to encircle Bakhmut and attack Crimea, he added.
“Most likely, this scenario will not be good for Russia, so we must prepare for a hard war,” he said in an interview published on his Telegram channel.
“We’re in such a state that we could fucking lose Russia – that’s the main problem… We need to impose martial law.”
Prigozhin said his political attitude was shaped by love for the fatherland and service to Putin. He said the nickname “Putin’s Chef” was stupid since he couldn’t cook, and joked that “Putin’s Butcher” might be a more appropriate nickname.
The Russian elite, he said, protected their own children from war while the children of ordinary Russians perished on the front lines, a situation he said could spark turmoil in Russia.
If ordinary Russians continued to get their children back in zinc coffins while the elite’s children sunbathed abroad, Russia would see turmoil akin to the 1917 revolutions that ushered in a civil war, he said.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Heavens)