Wagner chief mocks Russian military for ‘failing to protect country’ in audio statement

With his fate still uncertain, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group has defended his short-lived insurrection in a boastful audio statement.

In the 11-minute audio statement released on Monday (June 26), Yevgeny Prigozhin said he acted to prevent the destruction of the Wagner private military company and in response to an attack on a Wagner camp that killed some 30 fighters.

“We started our march because of an injustice,” Prigozhin said in a recording that gave no details about where he is or what his plans are.

In his statement, Prigozhin taunted Russia’s military, calling his march a master class on how it should have carried out the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He also mocked the Russian military for failing to protect the country, pointing out security breaches that allowed Wagner to march 780 km without facing resistance and block all military units on its way.

Also read: Explained: What is Wagner Group and why it is fighting Russia

Fate uncertain

The bullish statement made it no clearer what would ultimately happen to Prigozhin and his forces under the deal purportedly brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Uncertainty still swirls about the fate of senior Russian military leaders as well, and about the impact on the war in Ukraine, and even the political future of President Vladimir Putin.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu also made his first public appearance since the uprising that demanded his ouster, in a video aimed at projecting a sense of order after the country’s most serious political crisis in decades.

A feud between the Wagner Group leader and Russia’s military brass that has festered throughout the war erupted into a mutiny last week. The mercenaries left Ukraine to seize a military headquarters in a southern Russian city and rolled seemingly unopposed for hundreds of miles towards Moscow, before turning around after less than 24 hours on Saturday.

Where is he?

The Kremlin has said it had made a deal for Prigozhin to move to Belarus and receive amnesty, along with his soldiers. There was no confirmation of his whereabouts on Monday, although a popular Russian news channel on Telegram reported he was at a hotel in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.

Prigozhin didn’t disclose details, but said Lukashenko had proposed to find solutions for the Wagner private military company to continue its work in a lawful jurisdiction. That suggested Prigozhin might keep his military force, although it wasn’t immediately clear which jurisdiction he was referring to.

The independent Russian news outlet Vyorstka claimed that the construction of a field camp for up to 8,000 Wagner troops was underway in an area of Belarus about 200 km north of the border with Ukraine.

The Belarusian military monitoring group Belaruski Hajun, however, said on Telegram on Monday that it had seen no activity in that district that could suggest construction of a facility, and had no indications of Wagner convoys either in or moving towards Belarus.

Though the mutiny was brief, it was not bloodless. Russian media reported that several military helicopters and a communications plane were shot down by Wagner forces, killing at least 15. Prigozhin expressed regret for downing the aircraft but said they were bombing his convoys.

Wagner offices reopen

Russia’s Defence Ministry has denied attacking Wagner’s camp, and the US had intelligence that Prigozhin was building up his forces near the border with Russia for some time, suggesting the revolt was planned.

Russian media reported that a criminal case against Prigozhin hasn’t been closed, despite earlier Kremlin statements.

It was unclear what resources Prigozhin can draw on, and how much of his substantial wealth he can access. Police searching his St Petersburg office amid the rebellion found 4 billion rubles ($8 million) in trucks outside the building, according to Russian media reports confirmed by the Wagner boss. He claimed the money was intended to pay his soldiers’ families.

Russian media reported that Wagner offices in several Russian cities had reopened on Monday and the company had resumed enlisting recruits.

In a return to at least superficial normality, Moscow’s mayor announced an end to the counterterrorism regime imposed on the capital on Saturday, when troops and armoured vehicles set up checkpoints on the outskirts and authorities tore up roads leading into the city.

Desperate move to save Wagner?

Prigozhin’s statement appeared to confirm analysts’ views that the revolt was a desperate move to save Wagner from being dismantled after an order that all private military companies sign contracts with the Defence Ministry by July 1.

Prigozhin said most his fighters refused to come under the Defence Ministry’s command, and the force planned to hand over the military equipment it was using in Ukraine on June 30, after pulling out of Ukraine and gathering in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. Prigozhin claimed an attack that killed his fighters outraged the commanders and they decided to move sooner.

Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said on Twitter that Prigozhin’s mutiny wasn’t a bid for power or an attempt to overtake the Kremlin, but a desperate move amid his escalating rift with Russia’s military leadership.

While Prigozhin could get out of the crisis alive, he doesn’t have a political future in Russia under Putin, Stanovaya said.

(With agency inputs)