Wagner Mercenary Leader, Prigozhin Says No Plans To Overthrow Russian President, Vladimir Putin

The founder of the Wagner Group and leader of a “coup” against Russia, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has said that the “march” of his troops showed “serious” security issues in the country.

Russia was on the brink of collapse over the weekend as the ruthless Wagner Group mercenaries rose up against the Kremlin.

Putin’s old pal Prigozhin tried to storm the capital – before abruptly calling off the attack after striking a deal with the Kremlin.

Prigozhin who asserted that his forces “showed a masterclass” on how February 24, 2022 should have looked like, referring to the day that Russia invaded Ukraine.

The Mirror reports that the aim of the “march” he and his troops took towards Moscow was to avoid the destruction of the Wagner group of mercenaries, which he said was going to be terminated on July 1, and that the aim of the action was not to overthrow the country’s leadership.

While speaking in an 11-minute audio clip posted on Wagner-affiliated Telegram channels, Prigozhin said he only called off his group’s surge for the Russian capital to avoid spilling Russian blood, and said the uprising was intended to register a protest at the ineffectual conduct of the war in Ukraine, not to overthrow the government in Moscow.

He described his Wagner mercenary fighters as “perhaps the most experienced and combat effective unit in Russia, possibly in the world’, and said his private military company had done ‘an enormous amount of work in the interests of Russia.

The launched the uprising to prevent the destruction of the Wagner group, they had been ordered to hand over their weapons to the Russian military and had also suffered casualties in air strikes at the hands of Russia’s air force.

“The purpose of the campaign was to prevent the destruction of the Wagner PMC and to bring to justice those who, through their unprofessional actions, made a huge number of mistakes during the special military operation,’ Prigozhin said.
“We went to demonstrate our protest, and not to overthrow the government in the country.”

It comes despite reports from Meduza that claimed the mercenary leader frantically called Putin en route to Moscow having realised he’d made a mistake, only for the Russian leader to ignore his call and serve a chilling reminder of who remains in charge.

Prigozhin also claimed that despite not showing any aggression towards Russian forces, the Russian air force launched aerial bombardments on his troops, killing 30 people.

This, he said, ‘was the trigger’ that motivated him to order Wagner mercenaries to seize Russian soil.
“We covered 780 kilometers in a day. Not a single soldier on the ground was killed. We regret that we were forced to strike at [Russian] air assets, but they dropped bombs and launched missile strikes.”

Up to 15 Russian air force pilots are believed to have been killed by Wagner forces amid the attacks.

Prigozhin concluded his statement by saying that he ordered troops to stop their surge some 200km outside Moscow in the recognition that any further progress would’ve resulted in armed conflict and many deaths.

“We stopped at the moment when the first assault detachment, which approached 200 kilometers to Moscow, reconnoitered the area and it was obvious that at that moment a lot of blood would be shed.

“Therefore, we felt that the demonstration of what we were going to do, it is sufficient,” the statement added.