Yevgeny Prigozhin said there was a supposedly optimistic view that the West was getting tired of the war and China would negotiate a peace deal.
Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group
MOSCOW (Portal) Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, has warned that if the elite do not take the conflict seriously, Russia could experience a 1917like revolution and lose the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s most powerful mercenary said his political stance was shaped by love for the country and service to President Vladimir Putin, but warned that unrest is looming in Russia.
Prigozhin said there is a supposedly optimistic view that the West is getting tired of war and China will negotiate a peace deal, but he doesn’t really believe that interpretation.
Instead, he said, Ukraine is preparing a counteroffensive to push Russian troops back to their pre2014 borders when Russia annexed Crimea. Ukraine will try to encircle Bakhmut, the focus of intense fighting in the east, and attack Crimea, he added.
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“Most likely, this scenario is not good for Russia, so we need to prepare for a hard war,” he said in an interview published on his Telegram channel.
“We are in such a state that we could lose Russia that’s the main problem… We need to impose martial law.”
Prigozhin has stated that his nickname “Putin’s Chef” is silly as he can’t cook and has never been a chef, and joked that “Putin’s Butcher” might be a more appropriate nickname.
“You could have given me a nickname right away Putin’s butcher, and everything would have been fine,” he said.
If ordinary Russians continue to bring their children back in zinc coffins while the elite’s children “shake their bums” in the sun, he said, Russia will experience turmoil similar to the 1917 revolutions that sparked a civil war.
“This split can end with a revolution like in 1917,” he said.
“First the soldiers will get up, and then your loved ones will get up,” he said. “There are already tens of thousands of them relatives of the dead. And it will probably be hundreds of thousands there’s nothing we can do about it.”
The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.
Prigozhin has criticized Russia’s postSoviet policy towards Ukraine, calling the implementation of what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” unclear, contradictory and confusing.
Russia’s military leadership made repeated mistakes during the war, he said. The stated goal of demilitarizing Ukraine had failed, he said.