The head of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the Russian military’s prime brass of concocting lies to invade Ukraine.
Prigozhin, whose frequent tirades on social media belie his restricted function within the conflict as head of the Wagner non-public navy firm, has for months been overtly accusing Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s prime normal, Valery Gerasimov, of rank incompetence.
But on Friday he for the primary time dismissed Russia’s core justifications for invading Ukraine on Feb. 24 final 12 months in what it calls a “special military operation,” in a video clip launched on Telegram by his press service.
“There was nothing out of the ordinary happening on Feb. 24 … the Defense Ministry is trying to deceive society and the president and tell us a story about how there was crazy aggression from Ukraine and that they were planning to attack us with the whole of NATO,” Prigozhin mentioned, calling the official model “a beautiful story.”
“The war was needed … so that Shoigu could become a marshal … so that he could get a second ‘Hero’ (of Russia) medal. The war wasn’t needed to demilitarize or denazify Ukraine.”
Sitting on a chair with a large black Wagner flag behind him, Prigozhin mentioned the conflict had additionally been wanted to complement the ruling elite who, he mentioned, weren’t happy with the business potential of a part of Ukraine’s Donbass area that Moscow seized management of in 2014 through a proxy separatist power.
“The task was to divide material assets (in Ukraine),” he mentioned. “There was massive theft in the Donbass, but they wanted more.”
Contradicting Putin
Wagner spearheaded Russia’s seize of the Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut final month, and Prigozhin has used its battlefield success – achieved at an infinite human value – to publicly criticize Moscow with seeming impunity.
He has not, nevertheless, criticized President Vladimir Putin, on whose help he finally relies upon.
Yet, his newest assertion straight contradicts the rationale proclaimed by Putin, who mentioned when sending his tanks into Ukraine that it was to demilitarise and “denazify” a rustic that posed a risk to Russia, an allegation denied by Kyiv.
It is a story that Russian authorities defend with fines or jail phrases for these deemed to have unfold “falsehoods” in regards to the conflict.
There was no speedy response from the Defense Ministry, which has ignored earlier complaints from Prigozhin, in public no less than. Nor was there any speedy response from the Kremlin, which has additionally declined previously to touch upon Prigozhin’s outbursts.
Putin has, nevertheless, backed a Defense Ministry order, which Prigozhin opposes, that mercenary teams like Wagner should signal contracts placing themselves beneath ministry management by July 1.
Some Russian analysts have speculated that Prigozhin has political ambitions and could also be angling to interchange Shoigu, an thought he has all the time performed down.
On Thursday, he had accused the highest brass of mendacity to Putin and the Russian individuals in regards to the scale of Russian losses and setbacks in Ukraine.
In Friday’s video, he mentioned Moscow might have struck a cope with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier than the conflict, that the battle had been a catastrophe for Russia, and that tens of 1000’s of younger lives had been sacrificed needlessly, together with members of Russia’s most succesful forces.
Portraying the highest brass as vodka- and cognac-swilling fools who lunch on caviar, he alleged the Russian conflict effort was being hobbled by corruption.
“We are bathing in our own blood,” he mentioned. “Time is running out fast.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com
