The leader of a powerful mercenary group within Russia denounced the Russian government on Friday.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner Group mercenaries, claimed Russian government troops attacked his forces. In response, he said Russia’s “evil” military leadership “must be stopped.”
The Guardian summed up his comments as a “virtual declaration of war.”
As of Friday evening, no conflict was reported, but The New York Times, called the incident “the most dramatic internal conflict inside the country to spill into the open since President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began 16 months ago.”
1/ Wagner Group fighters have been saying goodbye to their relatives over the past 24 hours and telling them to watch the TV news, which suggests that they may have had advance notice of today’s dramatic events with Yevgeny Prigozhin. pic.twitter.com/BpwKTCfQPJ
— ChrisO_wiki (@ChrisO_wiki) June 23, 2023
“A missile attack was launched on the camps of Wagner Group. Many victims. According to eyewitnesses, the attack was launched from the rear, meaning it was launched by the Russian Defense Ministry,” Prigozhin said in an audio message, according to the Kyiv Independent.
“We have 25,000 (soldiers), and we’re going to figure out why there’s chaos in the country,” he said. “Everyone, who is willing, join us.”
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A translation was posted to Twitter of his comments that read, “Those, who destroyed today our guys, who destroyed tens, tens of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers will be punished. I’m asking: no one resist. Everyone who will try to resist, we will consider them a danger and destroy them immediately, including any checkpoints on our way. And any aviation that we see above our heads.”
Full message of Prigozhi “declaring war on the Russian Ministry of Defence:
“PMC Wagner Commanders’ Council made a decision: the evil brought by the military leadership of the country must be stopped.
They neglect the lives of soldiers. They forgot the word “justice”, and we… pic.twitter.com/1tCXPVn07p
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) June 23, 2023
“I’m asking everyone to remain calm, do not succumb to provocations, and remain in their houses. Ideally, those along our way, do not go outside. After we finished what we started, we will return to the frontline to protect our motherland,” the translation quoted Prigozhin as saying.
“Presidential authority, Government, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosgvardia, and other departments will continue operating as before. We will deal with those who destroy Russian soldiers. And we will return to the frontline. Justice in the Army will be restored. And after this, justice for the whole of Russia,” the translation quoted him as saying.
Russia’s Defense Ministry responded harshly, the Times reported.
“In connection with these statements, the F.S.B. of Russia initiated a criminal case on suspicion of calling for an armed rebellion,” the committee said, referring to the initials for Russia’s domestic intelligence agency. “We demand an immediate stop to these unlawful actions.”
Prigozhin also said Friday that the war with Ukraine was not necessary.
“The war wasn’t needed to return Russian citizens to our bosom, nor to demilitarize or denazify Ukraine,” he said. “The war was needed so that a bunch of animals could simply exult in glory.”
“There was nothing out of the ordinary on February 24,” he said, referring to the date in 2022 the invasion was approved, according to the Financial Times.
“The [defense] ministry is trying to deceive the president and society by saying Ukraine was going mad with aggression and was planning to attack us together with the whole NATO bloc.”
He accused Russian defense officials of “incompetent planning”.
“For some reason, this bunch of idiots thought they were so smart-a**ed that nobody would understand what they were up to or stop them on their way to Kyiv,” he said.
