Russian imperial flag over the grave of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was buried this Tuesday (29) in Saint Petersburg | Photo: EFE/EPA/ANATOLY MALTSEV
Representatives of the Wagner Group advised their mercenary fighters this Wednesday (30) to look for another job after the leader of this paramilitary organization, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was buried yesterday in a cemetery in Saint Petersburg.
“Several tens of thousands of wellprepared fighters are ready to work and defend their homeland [na Ucrânia]but due to known circumstances, they are not leaving us for now,” a Wagner Group representative said in an audio recording reproduced by the Bashnie Istorii news portal.
He added that mercenaries are now forced to look for work in Africa and the Middle East, but that “the situation there is not easy either.”
“We have strong competition from the Department of Defense and the National Guard who are also planning and trying to gain access [a essas
áreas] with similar activities to us,” he explained.
The spokesman explained that Prigozhin raised this issue on his last trip to Africa, where several countries showed interest in his services, although future contracts are still pending.
“We will try to find work for our members. We don’t know when and how much. So wait or look for another job. Stay up to date on the international situation. If our team is cleared to return to the special operations area [na Ucrânia], then we will actively continue recruiting men again. There will be work,” he emphasized.
In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the group’s members as heroes for taking the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.
However, the group fell from grace after a failed armed uprising against parts of the Kremlin in June, which ended with an agreement to move its base to Belarus.
Weeks before his death, Prigozhin admitted that the Wagner Group would no longer fight in Ukraine and announced the resumption of its activities on the African continent.
After returning from Africa, he traveled to Moscow, where his private plane crashed on the final day, 23,300 kilometers from the capital.
The cause of the fall is not yet known, although Prigozhin’s supporters, the opposition in exile and the Western press accuse Putin of giving the order to kill him, something the Kremlin categorically denies.
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