Russia’s Wagner group may soon cease to exist, founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in video remarks to a blogger on Friday. The Wagner group is a private militia group and Prigozhin, its founder, is known to be a close aide of President Vladimir Putin.
It was not immediately clear when Prigozhin had spoken and how serious he was being, Reuters reported.
Earlier this week, the Wagner group founder withdrew comments about the frontline he said had been a joke.
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In the past, the Wagner group has claimed that the regular Russian troops are not providing the required logistical support. Prigozhin has previously accused Moscow’s regular armed forces of not giving his men the ammunition they need and sometimes accuses top brass of betrayal.
“Now, with regard to the need in general for shells at the front, what we want. Today we are coming to the point where Wagner is ending,” he told Russian war blogger Semyon Pegov.
“Wagner, in a short period of time, will cease to exist. We will become history, nothing to worry about, things like this happen,” he continued.
Pegov posted the clip on his Telegram channel, Reuters reported.
Prigozhin is known for his combative style in his media interviews. In one such interview, he said on Thursday that he was joking when he said his forces would stop shelling Bakhmut to allow Ukrainian forces to show the city to US journalists.
Prigozhin said this week his troops were suffering heavy casualties due to a lack of support from Moscow.
Wagner has in the past dispatched soldiers to fight in Syria and in conflicts across Africa.
In January, the United States formally designated Wagner as a transnational criminal organisation, freezing its assets in the United States for helping Russia’s military in the Ukraine war.
Meanwhile, Russia captured four urban areas in the Bakhmut region, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Thursday. A day later, Russian missiles hit several Ukrainian cities in the central part of the East European country killing at least 25 people.
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