2023-06-23 22:30:30
Freitag, 23.06.2023, 22:30
The conflict between the Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and the military leadership, which has been smoldering for months, has escalated. According to Prigozhin’s mercenary group Wagner, fighters marched into Russia on Saturday night. The Wagner boss had previously accused the army of bombing his troops and called on the Russians to rebel against the army leadership. According to the state media, security measures have been tightened in Moscow.
The Russian prosecutor’s office began investigations into “armed insurrection”. The domestic intelligence agency FSB accused Prigozhin of inciting rebellion and called on his fighters to capture their boss, Russian agencies reported. President Vladimir Putin was informed about the developments, said his spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “Necessary action” would be taken.
According to Prigozhin, his fighters have moved into the Rostov-on-Don region of southern Russia. He did not present any evidence for his statements, and the truthfulness could not initially be checked independently. The mercenary leader warned that his troops would “destroy everything” that stood in their way. “We go on, we go to the end.”
Prigozhin had previously accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering rocket attacks on Wagner mercenary camps, killing scores of fighters. “We are 25,000,” Prigozhin warned and called on the Russian population to join his troops. “The evil that the country’s military leadership is wreaking must be stopped.”
The Wagner boss had previously contradicted the Kremlin’s claims that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had failed. “The Russian army is retreating in the Zaporizhia and Kherson areas, the Ukrainian troops are advancing,” Prigozhin said in an online video. The same happens in Bachmut.
According to the state news agency Tass, security measures were tightened in Moscow during the night. Amateur videos released by local media showed armored vehicles in numerous locations in the capital, including in front of the Defense Ministry.
The US government was closely monitoring developments, according to a spokesman. “We are monitoring the situation and will coordinate these developments with allies and partners,” said a spokesman for the National Security Council. President Joe Biden is informed. Rival Russian troops are in the process of “tearing each other apart in the struggle for power and money,” commented the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov.
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The Wagner mercenaries, most of whom were recruited from Russian prisons, played an important role in the long and costly capture of the city of Bakhmut in the eastern Ukrainian region in recent months. At the same time, mercenary chief Prigozhin – frustrated by supply problems and, according to him, a lack of support from Moscow – developed into one of the most vehement critics of Russia’s military leadership. Again and again he attacked Defense Minister Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Most recently, he even undermined Putin’s justification for the offensive in the neighboring country: “Why did the military special operation start?” Prigozhin asked, answering himself: “The war was needed for the self-portrayal of a bunch of bastards.”
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