The leader of the paramilitary group Wagner said on Saturday that he has control of military installations and the airport in Rostov, a key city for Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
“We are at the headquarters. (…) “Military installations in Rostov are under control, including the airport,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging platform, as men in uniform followed behind him.
The leader of the Wagnar group assured that the military aircraft involved in the Russian offensive in Ukraine “depart normally” from the airfield to perform “combat duties”, stating that “there are no problems”.
“The main command is functioning normally,” Prigozhin continued, assuring that “not a single officer” was suspended there.
“A large number of territories” captured in Ukraine are “lost” and “many soldiers are killed,” he said, again accusing the Russian army of not telling the truth about the situation at the front.
The army is losing “up to 1,000 men a day,” a figure that includes dead, wounded, missing and those who refuse to fight, Prigozhin said.
The head of the Wagner paramilitary group called for an uprising against the country’s military command, which he accused of attacking its fighters.
Paramilitary group leader Wagner said he had 25,000 soldiers under his command and was ready to die, urging the Russians to join them in a “march for justice”.
Prigozhin had previously accused the Russian military of carrying out attacks on his mercenary camps, which resulted in “a very large number of casualties”, allegations denied by the Russian Defense Ministry.
Prigozhin’s accusations expose deep tensions within Moscow’s troops over the offensive in Ukraine.
The leader of the Wagner group had already stated that the Russian army is retreating to various sectors of southern and eastern Ukraine, Kherson and Zaporijia respectively, and to Bakhmut, contradicting Moscow’s claims that the counter-offensive in Kiev was a failure.
Source: DN
