Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary group Wagner’s chief, on Friday, accused Moscow’s military leadership of ordering strikes on their camps and killing a “huge” number of forces.
“We were ready to make concessions to the defence ministry, surrender our weapons,” Prigozhin said in an audio message released by his spokespeople.
“Today, seeing that we have not been broken, they conducted missile strikes at our rear camps,” he added.
The Russian defence ministry has denied he claims strikes on Wagner forces.
There’s no need for Russia to invade Ukraine
Wagner chief also blamed defence minister Sergei Shoigu for starting the war in Ukraine in February last year.
Prigozhin has often accused Shoigu and some other officials during the course of the war, but the latest allegation is significant, as it questions Russia’s justifications for invading Ukraine.
In a video posted on social media Friday (June 23), the Wagner chief can be heard saying that Russia did not face an imminent security threat to justify the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In a half-hour video released by his press service, he said, “The Armed Forces of Ukraine were not going to attack Russia with the NATO bloc. The Russian Defense Ministry is deceiving the public and the president.”
“On 24 February [2022] there was nothing extraordinary happening there. Now the Ministry of Defence is trying to deceive the public, deceive the president and tell a story that there was some crazy aggression by Ukraine, that – together with the whole NATO bloc – Ukraine was planning to attack us,” he said.
“The war was needed… so that Shoigu could become a Marshal, so that he could get a second Hero Star… the war wasn’t for demilitarising or de-nazifying Ukraine. It was needed for an extra star,” he further added.
“Why did the special military operation begin? … the war was needed for the self-promotion of a bunch of ba***rds,” he added, further blaming Russian military leadership for “poorly planning” the invasion and “embarrassing” because of the setbacks on the battlefield.
He said, “Shoigu killed thousands of the most combat-ready Russian soldiers in the first days of the war. The mentally ill sc**bags decided ‘It’s okay, we’ll throw in a few thousand more Russian men as cannon fodder. They’ll die under artillery fire, but we’ll get what we want’.”
“That’s why it has become a protracted war,” he said.
Prigozhin said that the war was also needed to enrich the ruling elite who were not satisfied with the commercial potential of part of Ukraine’s Donbas region that Moscow seized control of in 2014 via a proxy separatist force.
He said, “The task was to divide material assets (in Ukraine). There was massive theft in the Donbas, but they wanted more.”
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Russia ‘retreating’ from Ukraine attacks
Wagner’s chief also said that Moscow’s forces are retreating in Ukraine’s east and south following Kyiv’s counteroffensive – remarks that are basically contradicting recent assessments by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine was suffering “catastrophic” losses.
“On the ground now … the Russian army is retreating on the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson fronts. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are pushing back the Russian army,” Prigozhin said on social media.
Last year, just a few days after launching the invasion, Russia claimed that it annexed the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
“We are washing ourselves in blood. No one is bringing reserves. What they tell us is the deepest deception,” Prigozhin added, referring to the Russian military and political leadership.
Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.
(With inputs from agencies)
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