The head of the Wagner militia, key in the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, accused the regular army of Moscow on Friday of bombing its bases and called on the population to revolt against the military command.
The army denied these accusations, calling them a “provocation”, while the Russian services opened an investigation against the head of the mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, for attempted mutiny and the Kremlin asked the paramilitaries to arrest their boss.
Prigozhin, for a time considered a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, gained political influence and launched into a confrontation with political and military authorities that now appears to have spilled over into rhetoric.
Russian troops “have carried out shelling, missile barrages, against our rear bases” on the Ukrainian front, Prigozhin said in an audio message.
“A large number of our fighters died,” he added, vowing to “respond” to those attacks.
“The command committee of the Wagner group decided that those who have military responsibility in the country must be stopped,” continued the 62-year-old head of the mercenaries.
25,000 mercenaries. “We are 25,000 and we are going to determine the causes of the chaos that reigns in the country. Our strategic reserves are the entire army and the entire country,” he proclaimed, calling on “everyone who wants to” to join his men in “ending disorder.”
The Russian military categorically denied the allegations of attacks.
“The messages and videos posted on social networks by Y. Prigozhin about alleged ‘bombing by the Russian Ministry of Defense against rear bases of the Wagner paramilitary group’ do not correspond to reality and are a provocation,” the ministry said in a statement. .
The Kremlin indicated that Putin is aware of all the facts related to Prigozhin” and that “the necessary measures are being taken.” Shortly after, the Russian security services (FBS) announced the opening of an investigation against Wagner’s boss for “calling for armed mutiny.”
And a prominent Russian general has urged the head of the Wagner mercenary group to suspend efforts to oust the leadership of Moscow’s Defense Ministry.
“I urge you to stop. The enemy is only waiting for the internal political situation to worsen in our country. Before it is too late, it is necessary to obey the will and the order of the popularly elected President of Russia.” Federation,” said Sergei Surovikin, commander of Russia’s aerospace forces, in a highly unusual video address.
Priozhin later explained that he did not intend to stage a “coup”, but to organize a “march for justice”.
Wash in blood. These tensions occur in the midst of a counteroffensive by Ukrainian troops to reconquer territories taken by Russia since the start of the military intervention in February 2022.
A few hours before the outbreak of this crisis, Prigozhin assured that the Russian army was “withdrawing” in eastern and southern Ukraine, contradicting the claims of the Kremlin, for which the Kiev counteroffensive is failing.
“The (Russian) army is withdrawing in the Zaporizhia and Kherson (south) areas, the Ukrainian armed forces are pushing back” Russian troops, he said in an interview published on Telegram by his press service.
“There is no control, there are no military triumphs” for Moscow, Prigozhin insisted, adding that the Russian military is “washed in its blood,” alluding to heavy losses suffered by regular troops.
Putin and his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, say instead that the army is “repelling” all Ukrainian attacks.
Precisely the Ukrainian army indicated that it was following the infighting in Moscow.
“We are watching,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter, while Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said rival Russian factions had started “eating each other for power and money.”
“They are going to try to put him out of the game”
Agencies
The conflict in Ukraine allowed the unpredictable head of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to establish himself as a leading figure in Russia, but his call to revolt against the General Staff of the regular army threatens to cut short his takeoff and the secret services, the FSB, called for his capture.
“We still have to understand what is happening,” says independent Russian analyst Tatiana Stanovaia, who considers it likely that the authorities “try to take Prigozhin out of the game”, who would have involuntarily lent himself to that game. “For the FSB and the General Staff, this is a gift from heaven. At the very least, Prigozhin is going to take a blow.”
For years, Prigozhin, a 62-year-old millionaire, did shadow work for the Kremlin, sending mercenaries from his private group, Wagner, to theaters of conflict in the Middle East and Africa, always denying any involvement. The strategy changed with the start of the conflict in Ukraine, in February 2022. Its public eruption began in September, when the Russian army suffered serious and humiliating setbacks.
Prigozhin is presented for the first time as the founder of Wagner, a militia that since 2014 has fought in Ukraine, Syria and in African countries.
In October, he sets up his offices in a luxurious glass building in St. Petersburg and begins to recruit thousands of men in Russian prisons.
The offer made to the convicts was to fight in exchange for amnesty. With a caveat: deserters and those who allowed themselves to be captured would be executed. When a video circulated of an alleged Wagner defector being executed with a sledgehammer, Prigozhin did not hesitate to praise the crime and call the executed man a “dog”.