“We continue, we will go to the end.” Evguéni Prigojine expressed his determination to overthrow the Russian military command in an audio message on Telegram on Saturday, June 24. “We will destroy everything that gets in our way,” added the leader of the paramilitary group Wagner.
He announced that his forces, previously stationed in Ukraine, had “crossed the Russian state border” and entered Rostov in the south of the country. He then asserted that his troops shot down a Russian helicopter that “opened fire on a civilian column.” He provided no evidence to support these claims, which AFP could not confirm. In Rostov, the governor of the region called on the population to “stay at home”.
In Moscow, security measures around sensitive locations have been “reinforced”, according to a police officer quoted by the TASS agency.
Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov has informed President Vladimir Putin “about the initiation of criminal investigations in connection with an attempt to organize an armed mutiny,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The head of state is “continuously informed” by the security services, he added. The FSB (security forces) called on Wagner’s fighters to arrest their leader.
In several audio messages throughout the day, Wagner’s boss previously claimed that the Russian attacks had caused a “very high number of casualties” among his group’s ranks. “They carried out attacks, rocket attacks, on our rear camps. A large number of our fighters were killed,” he said, accusing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering the attacks.
“Provocation”
These allegations “about alleged ‘attacks by the Russian Defense Ministry on rear bases of the paramilitary group Wagner’ do not correspond to reality and represent a provocation,” the Russian Defense Ministry replied in a press release.
An influential Russian general, Sergei Surovikin, urged Wagner’s fighters to return to their barracks. “I (you) ask to stop (…) Before it’s too late, we must obey the will and order of the President-elect of Russia,” he said in a video on Telegram.
This open war reveals the deep tensions within the Russian armed forces involved in the Ukraine conflict. “The Wagner Group leadership committee has decided that those who have military responsibility for the country must be stopped,” Wagner’s boss said in an audio message, not calling for “resistance” to his troops.
He summed it up by claiming there were “25,000” fighters and urging the Russians to “join” them. “We are 25,000 and we will find out why there is chaos in the country (…) Our strategic reserves are the entire army and the whole country,” Evguéni Prigojine explained in an audio message, demanding “to put an end to the chaos”. “.
contradictions
Rival Russian factions have begun “devouring each other for power and money,” said Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence. “We are monitoring the situation and will be discussing these developments with our allies and partners,” said Adam Hodge, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
The Russian army is retreating in several sectors of southern and eastern Ukraine, Wagner boss said on Friday, contradicting the Kremlin’s claims that the counter-offensive in Kiev had failed.
“The (Russian) army retreats to Zaporizhia and Kherson (south) oblasts, Ukrainian forces are pushing,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview published on Telegram. “The same thing is happening in Bachmout, the enemy will keep penetrating our defenses,” the businessman added, referring to an eastern town that the Russians are said to have captured but where the Ukrainians say they have been in recent weeks advanced on the flanks. “There is no control, there are no military successes,” Yevgeny Prigoyine criticized again from Moscow, reiterating that the Russian soldiers wanted to “wash themselves with their blood” and thereby affirm that they were suffering heavy casualties.
Unverifiable from an independent source, the words of Wagner’s boss contradict those of Vladimir Putin and Sergei Shoigu, according to which the Russian army “fends off” all Ukrainian attacks. However, after the Wagner chief’s statements, the Russian Defense Ministry warned that Ukraine was preparing an attack on Bachmout’s side, “using Prigoyine’s provocation to destabilize the situation.”
In recent days, Vladimir Putin has reiterated that the Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed and that Kiev’s forces have suffered near “catastrophic” casualties. Yevgeny Prigoyine called Moscow’s declarations of victory a “deep deception” and accused the General Staff of “hiding” Russian difficulties and losses on the ground.
While many opponents and anonymous Russians are in prison for criticizing the Ukraine conflict, the Wagner boss is openly questioning the reasons for the military intervention. “The war was necessary to promote a group of bastards,” he lashed out, also blaming “the Russian oligarchs” who “needed the war,” while he said Kiev was “not ready for an agreement.”
With AFP