Drama in Russia: Leader of mercenary group turns on government

The chief of the Wagner mercenary group on Friday accused Russia of killing a “huge number” of its forces in strikes and vowed to retaliate, ratcheting up tensions between Moscow and the private military company, AFP reports.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, 62, whose men have bolstered Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, has ramped up his verbal attacks against Moscow in recent weeks, including questioning the very need for the military operation.

Once believed to be a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin is increasingly seen as keen on a political role.

“The council of commanders of PMC Wagner has made a decision — the evil that the military leadership of the country brings must be stopped,” Prigozhin said in a series of furious audio messages released by his spokespeople on Friday, according to AFP.

“We were ready to make concessions to the defense ministry, surrender our weapons. Today, seeing that we have not been broken, they conducted missile strikes at our rear camps. A huge number of our fighters, our comrades died,” he added.

Prigozhin warned Russians against resisting his forces and called on them to join him, adding “there are 25,000 of us”.

The Russian defense ministry denied the claims about the strikes, saying the statements “do not correspond to reality”, and calling them a “provocation”.

“The Russian armed forces continue to carry out combat missions” in Ukraine, the ministry added.

Meanwhile, Russia’s FSB security service opened a criminal case against Prigozhin for calling for armed mutiny, the TASS news agency reported.

Putin has been briefed on the developments and “necessary measures are being taken,” Interfax news agency said, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

After years of operating in the shadows, Prigozhin has in recent months admitted to running the elusive mercenary group and even interfering in US elections.

His forces, bolstered by tens of thousands of prison recruits, played a central role in Russia’s capture of the Donetsk region town of Bakhmut, the longest and likely bloodiest battle of the conflict.

However, this week he accused Moscow’s top brass of deceiving Russians about the offensive in Ukraine.

“Why did the special military operation begin? … the war was needed for the self-promotion of a bunch of bastards,” Prigozhin declared.

On Friday, in an explosive 30-minute video posted on his Telegram channel, Prigozhin dismissed Moscow’s claims that Kyiv was planning to launch an offensive on the Russian-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine in February 2022.

“There was nothing extraordinary happening on the eve of February 24,” Prigozhin said, according to The Guardian.

“The ministry of defense is trying to deceive the public and the president and spin the story that there was insane levels of aggression from the Ukrainian side and that they were going to attack us together with the whole NATO block,” he added.

Prigozhin also said Russia’s leadership could have avoided the war by negotiating with Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“When Zelenskyy became president, he was ready for agreements. All that needed to be done was to get off Mount Olympus and negotiate with him,” he said.

Despite being a member of Putin’s inner circle, in recent months Prigozin has become embroiled in a bitter power struggle with the defense ministry, accusing the Russian military of attempting to “steal” victories in Ukraine from his forces.

(Israel National News’ North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)