Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner group, responded to Vladimir Putin’s speech on Saturday and stated that Russia will soon have a new president. He also denied Putin’s “treason” accusation, calling his fighters “patriots” and guaranteeing that they will not surrender to the authorities.
“Poo [Putin] made the wrong choice. Worse for him, soon we will have a new president,” read a message on the Telegram platform.
“With regard to the betrayal of the fatherland, the President is deeply mistaken. We are patriots. We have fought and fought (…) and no one intends to surrender at the request of the President, the Federal Security Service or whoever anyway.”, says Prigozhin in a new audio published on his Telegram channel.
While claiming that Vladimir Putin is “deeply mistaken”, the leader of the Wagner group guaranteed that his fighters “will not surrender”, stating that he and his men do not want “the country to remain immersed in corruption, lies and bureaucracy”. .
“When we fought in Africa, they said we needed Africa and they quickly left it because they stole all the money for aid,” he said.
Prigozhin also pointed out that when the campaign in Ukraine started, fighters from the Wagner group went to fight, “but the fact is that ammunition, weapons and all the money destined for them were also stolen”.
“On the other hand, officials save for their own benefit, for cases like today, when someone approaches Moscow. Now they save nothing: they attack peaceful columns with planes and helicopters,” he denounced.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the armed uprising promoted by Wagner paramilitary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin a “betrayal” and pledged to “defend the people” and Russia.
“Our actions to defend the fatherland against this threat will be very harsh and those responsible will be brought to justice,” said the Russian president, but confirmed that the situation in Rostov is “difficult” and that his troops are now trying stabilize the situation.
The head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, called for an uprising against the Russian military command, which he accused of attacking its fighters.
This morning Prigozhin announced that the paramilitary group controls military facilities and the airport in Rostov, a key city for the Russian attack on Ukraine.
The leader of the paramilitary group said he had 25,000 soldiers at his disposal 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
