In an audio statement, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin defended his aborted armed rebellion as a reaction to an attack on his force that killed some 30 of his fighters.
The leader of the Wagner mercenary group defendedin a boastful audio statement Monday as the Kremlin tried to project stability, with authorities releasing a video of Russia’s defense minister reviewing troops in Ukraine.
Prigozhin taunted Russia’s military on Monday, calling his march a “master class” on how it should have carried out the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He also mocked the military for failing to protect Russia, pointing out security breaches that allowed Wagner to march 780 kilometers toward Moscow without facing resistance.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin chairs a meeting with his deputies in Moscow, Russia, Monday, June 26, 2023. Membes of the Wagner Group military company sit atop of a tank on a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, Saturday, June 24, 2023, prior to leaving an area at the headquarters of the Southern Military District. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s troops who joined him in the uprising will not face prosecution and those who did not will be offered contracts by the Defense Ministry.
In this photo released on Monday, June 26, 2023 by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, right, listens to an officer as he inspects a command post of one of the formations of the Zapad group of Russian troops at an undisclosed location of Ukraine. Shoigu made his first public appearance Monday since a mercenary uprising demanded his ouster, inspecting troops in Ukraine.
The independent Russian news outlet Vyorstka claimed that construction of a field camp for up to 8,000 Wagner troops was underway in an area of Belarus about 200 kilometers north of the border with Ukraine. Andrei Gurulev, a retired general and current lawmaker who has had rows with the mercenary leader, said Prigozhin and his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin deserve “a bullet in the head.”
In a return to at least superficial normality, Moscow’s mayor announced an end to the “counterterrorism regime” imposed on the capital Saturday, when troops and armored vehicles set up checkpoints on the outskirts and authorities tore up roads leading into the city. Prigozhin said most of his fighters refused to come under the Defense Ministry’s command, and the force planned to hand over the military equipment it was using in Ukraine on June 30 after pulling out of Ukraine and gathering in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. He accused the Defense Ministry of attacking Wagner’s camp, prompting them to move sooner.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense said Monday that Ukraine had “gained impetus” in its push around Bakhmut, making progress north and south of the town. Ukrainian forces claimed to have retaken Rivnopil, a village in southeast Ukraine that has seen heavy fighting.
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