Natalia Chi
Evgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s notorious Wagner Group private mercenary army, said that unless the country’s “elite” took full part in the fight and forced the country into the “Northern Territories”, Russia would not be ready for a “revolution”. warned that it could face and lose the war in Ukraine. Korea Mode” will be carried out under martial law and achieve results on the front lines.
In a lengthy video interview with a pro-war, pro-Kremlin blogger, Prigozhin spoke with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the daughter of a sports executive whose New Year’s holiday in wartime Dubai had angered the Russian public. He lashed out at Mr. Ksenia.
Russia is in danger of a rake ‘revolution’
“Children of the elite … are allowed to live fat and carefree lives in public,” Prigozhin said indignantly. I’ll be back,” he said.
Prigogine press service via AP
Referring to the Russian Revolution that overthrew the Russian monarchy more than a century ago, he said, “This duality may end like the revolution of 1917. First the soldiers rise, then the loved ones.” Get up,” he warned. Prigozhin said Russian citizens could raid elite homes with “pitchforks.” “I don’t think there are hundreds of them, but there are now tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of relatives to those killed.”
This is not the first time Prigozhin has criticized the country’s top officials and the political and business elite, whom he sees as incompetent and accused of treason for owning foreign property and sending their children abroad. Although he has even filed an accusation, the harshness of his remarks stood out in interviews. Criticizing the Russian military’s strategic failure in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“Prepare for a fierce war”
“We aggressively raided and stamped our shoes all over Ukraine while we searched for the Nazis,” Prigozhin said. “We approached Kiev, took off our trousers and retreated. Then we went to Kherson, where we also took off our trousers and retreated, but nothing seems to be working.”
He said of the vague goals set forth by his longtime ally President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials early in the war: Aiming to ‘De-Nazi’ and ‘Demilitarize’ Ukrainewas failing.
Mr. Prigozhin avoided criticizing Mr. Putin himself. Furthermore, he reaffirmed his devotion to the Russian leadership, the Ukrainian war, and the Russian Motherland, citing the poorly organized chain of command of Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, as well as the Russian military’s heavy offensive against Ukraine. denounced corruption for failing to prepare for Western-backed resistance.
Mr. Prigogine became wealthy from a government catering contract and then expanded his business. According to CBS News’ own researchpresented two potential scenarios for how the Ukraine war might play out for Russia to fund a vast and brutal international criminal enterprise with private armed forces.
“There are optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. The optimistic scenario, which I don’t really believe in, is that Europe and the US will be fed up with the Ukraine conflict, and then China will bring everyone to the negotiating table. That’s what it is,” he said. “We would agree that anything we have already seized belongs to us, and anything we have not yet seized does not belong to us. This scenario is unlikely.”
In return, Ukraine could acquire more Western weapons and bolster its long-anticipated counterattack, which “may succeed in some places,” Prigozhin said.
“They will try to restore the borders of 2014 and this will easily happen. They will attack Crimea, blow up Crimean bridges, try to cut off supply lines. And for us, This scenario is not good, we need to prepare for a fierce war,” he continued.
“We are in a situation where we can lose Russia.
Prigogine Releases Wagner Group Death Toll
Wagner’s chief, making an initial estimate of the level of mercenary casualties in his company, said: Recruited 50,000 prisoners from Russian prisons During the war, 20% of them died, as did 10,000 other contract-hired soldiers.
RIA Novosti
The White House announced in early May that about 10,000 Wagner fighters had been killed around the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut in what was the bloodiest battle of the war so far since December alone.
Neither US estimates nor Prigogine’s own figures can be verified, and although the figures are double, they span the entire 15 months of the war.
Russia’s defense ministry has not released a casualty figure since September when it said only about 6,000 civilians had been killed in action, a figure Western intelligence and military experts say is a gross underestimate. It’s an evaluation.
“President Putin’s Butcher Shop”
Prigozhin also commented for the first time on the nickname “President Putin’s Chef” given to him by a Russian investigative journalist after he exposed a huge government catering contract.
“I’ve never been a chef. I used to be a pretty successful restaurateur. I can’t cook for myself. I should have come up with ‘Putin’s Butcher’ instead.” Prigogine apparently joked, referring to his brutal tactics.Mercenary forces are deployed from now on Ukraine To central africa.
Prigozhin’s ability to spew out scathing criticisms of Russian officials with seemingly impunity, amplified by a group of influential war-promoting bloggers on the Russian Telegram channel, has baffled many Russian watchers. . Similar, albeit tame, comments were made by dozens of political dissidents and protesters based on draconian laws passed by Russia’s rubber stamp parliament to silence dissenting voices at the start of the Ukraine invasion. sent others to prison.
However, Prigogine and his mercenaries have had some success on the front lines, mainly through throwing. Waves of unprepared and unequipped prisoners rush into battle As cannon fodder, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.
In the wake of these limited successes, after months of shameful routs by the regular army, Putin congratulated both Wagner and the military for their recent capture of Bakhmut, but Ukraine still holds the city. claim to be suppressed.
Many take Putin’s praise as confirmation that Prigozhin still appreciates his dedication to the Russian war despite his public antics.
“I love my country. I obey President Putin. Hell for Shoigu,” Prigozhin said in a recent rant. “We will keep fighting.”
