Yevgeny Prigozhin has urged Russian servicemen to join his armed uprising against the country’s military hierarchy. Prigozhin is the head of Russia’s Wagner private army, which has been fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.
Social media videos purported to show Prigozhin’s soldiers arriving in a convoy in Rostov-on-Don, the location of the Russian military’s southern area headquarters, and then storming the structure as observers from the public stood by, some of them smoking.
A later tweet claimed to contain a video of Prigozhin claiming to be in charge of the city and inviting the chief of the general staff and the Russian defense minister to a meeting at the headquarters building he now controls.
Yevgeny Prigozhin speaking once again from the Southern Military District Headquarters in the City of Rostov-on-Don, stating that Wagner has Occupied all of the Military Installations across the City including the Airfield to insure that the Russian Air Force is Attacking the… pic.twitter.com/S3krmZqEg6
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 24, 2023
The veracity of these films or the summary of their contents has not yet been confirmed.
The Washington Post reports that in the meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned Prigozhin in a brief speech and issued a call to the Russian people to rebel against him, comparing the mercenary leader to a terrorist:
“Everyone who deliberately embarked on the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed rebellion, chose the path of blackmail and terrorist methods — they will suffer inevitable punishment.”
According to NPR, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, a division of the Federal Security Services, has also accused Prigozhin of engaging in an armed uprising.
Prigozhin has claimed, however, that his soldiers are merely looking for “justice” for a missile strike that some of his men were killed in on the orders of “evil” Russian military leadership. Prigozhin also stated that, despite his threats to march his forces to Moscow, he was not attempting to topple Putin’s administration.
“Presidential power, the government, the police, and the Russian guard will work as usual,” he said, according to the BBC. “This is not a military coup, but a march of justice. Our actions do not interfere with the troops in any way.”
“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,” Prigozhin said Friday.
Now, there are more updates:
The head of a significant mercenary organization operating within Russia criticized the country’s leadership.
The leader of the Wagner Group of mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, alleged that Russian government troops had attacked his men. He replied that the “evil” military leadership of Russia “must be stopped.”
The Guardian summed up his comments as a “virtual declaration of war.”
The New York Times, called the incident “the most dramatic internal conflict inside the country to spill into the open since President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began 16 months ago.”
1/ Wagner Group fighters have been saying goodbye to their relatives over the past 24 hours and telling them to watch the TV news, which suggests that they may have had advance notice of today's dramatic events with Yevgeny Prigozhin. pic.twitter.com/BpwKTCfQPJ
— ChrisO_wiki (@ChrisO_wiki) June 23, 2023
“A missile attack was launched on the camps of Wagner Group. Many victims. According to eyewitnesses, the attack was launched from the rear, meaning it was launched by the Russian Defense Ministry,” Prigozhin said in an audio message, according to the Kyiv Independent.
“We have 25,000 (soldiers), and we’re going to figure out why there’s chaos in the country,” he said. “Everyone, who is willing, join us.”
A translation was posted to Twitter of his comments that read, “Those, who destroyed today our guys, who destroyed tens, tens of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers will be punished. I’m asking: no one resist. Everyone who will try to resist, we will consider them a danger and destroy them immediately, including any checkpoints on our way. And any aviation that we see above our heads.”
Full message of Prigozhi "declaring war on the Russian Ministry of Defence:
"PMC Wagner Commanders’ Council made a decision: the evil brought by the military leadership of the country must be stopped.
They neglect the lives of soldiers. They forgot the word “justice”, and we… pic.twitter.com/1tCXPVn07p
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated) June 23, 2023
“I’m asking everyone to remain calm, do not succumb to provocations, and remain in their houses. Ideally, those along our way, do not go outside. After we finished what we started, we will return to the frontline to protect our motherland,” the translation quoted Prigozhin as saying.
“Presidential authority, Government, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosgvardia, and other departments will continue operating as before. We will deal with those who destroy Russian soldiers. And we will return to the frontline. Justice in the Army will be restored. And after this, justice for the whole of Russia,” the translation quoted him as saying.
Russia’s Defense Ministry responded harshly, the Times reported.
“In connection with these statements, the F.S.B. of Russia initiated a criminal case on suspicion of calling for an armed rebellion,” the committee said, referring to the initials for Russia’s domestic intelligence agency. “We demand an immediate stop to these unlawful actions.”
Prigozhin also said Friday that the war with Ukraine was not necessary.
“The war wasn’t needed to return Russian citizens to our bosom, nor to demilitarize or denazify Ukraine,” he said. “The war was needed so that a bunch of animals could simply exult in glory.”
“There was nothing out of the ordinary on February 24,” he said, referring to the date in 2022 the invasion was approved, according to the Financial Times.
“The [defense] ministry is trying to deceive the president and society by saying Ukraine was going mad with aggression and was planning to attack us together with the whole NATO bloc.”
He accused Russian defense officials of “incompetent planning”.
“For some reason, this bunch of idiots thought they were so smart-a**ed that nobody would understand what they were up to or stop them on their way to Kyiv,” he said.