“We went as a demonstration of protest,” stated Yevgeny Prigozhin. (File)
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin stated on Monday {that a} one-day mutiny by his Wagner drive had been meant to not overthrow Russia’s authorities however to register a protest over what he stated was its ineffectual conduct of the warfare in Ukraine.
In his first public feedback since ending the mutiny late on Saturday, Prigozhin repeated his frequent declare that Wagner was the best preventing drive in Russia “and even the world”, and that it put to disgrace the items that Moscow had despatched into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
He stated the way in which it had been capable of seize the southern Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don with out bloodshed and to ship an armed convoy to inside 200 km of Moscow had been testomony to the effectiveness of his fighters.
“We showed a master class, as it should have been on Feb. 24, 2022. We did not have the goal of overthrowing the existing regime and the legally elected government,” he stated in an 11-minute audio message launched on the Telegram messaging app.
Prigozhin renewed an allegation, thus far unsupported by proof, that the Russian navy had attacked a Wagner camp with missiles after which helicopters, killing about 30 of its males, and stated this had been the rapid set off for what he referred to as a “march of justice”.
AVERTING BLOODSHED
Wagner stopped its advance in the direction of Moscow for the time being when it realised that it must confront ready Russian troops, and that blood would inevitably be shed, he stated, reiterating an assertion he made on Saturday.
Prigozhin, a former shut ally of President Vladimir Putin, pressured that Wagner had not spilt a drop of blood on the bottom throughout its northward march, however regretted that his fighters had needed to kill Russian servicemen who attacked their convoy from helicopters.
He additionally as soon as extra complained a few navy order that every one volunteer items together with Wagner are supposed to signal by July 1 inserting themselves beneath the management of Russia’s Defence Ministry.
Fewer than 2% of Wagner’s males have signed up, Prigozhin added.
“The aim of the march was to avoid the destruction of Wagner,” he stated.
In the recording, Prigozhin didn’t deal with any of the questions nonetheless surrounding the settlement brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that introduced the mutiny to an finish.
The Kremlin stated on Saturday that the deal had included dropping a legal case in opposition to Prigozhin and his transferring to Belarus.
Prigozhin, who was final seen in public being pushed in a sport utility car out of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday night, didn’t say the place he was when he recorded his assertion.Â
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