2023-06-23 23:46:36
Time.news – Russia did not face an imminent threat to its security when it decided to invade Ukraine and the war started only for the ambitions of the military leaders. This was denounced by the controversial head of the Russian mercenaries of the Wagner Company, Evgeny Prigozhin, in a video bombshell posted on Telegram and which contradicts the official narrative, according to which NATO allegedly used Ukraine as a launching pad for an attack on the Federation who thus had to prevent a threat to his safety.
“The Ukrainian armed forces would not have attacked Russia with the NATO blockade,” Prigozhin said in the half-hour long tirade broadcast by his news service. “The Russian Defense Ministry is deceiving the people and the president,” he added.
Prigozhin’s comments run counter to the casus belli provided by the president, Vladimir Putin, when he ordered troops to be sent to Ukraine last February 2022, even though the private army chief avoided attacking the Russian leader personally. Putin has cited NATO expansion near Russia’s borders as a major justification for invading Ukraine.
“Russia at war for self-promotion”
Prigozhin escalated his criticism of the Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, stating that Russia entered the war “for self-promotion of a group of bastards”. For months now, the founder of Wagner has been at loggerheads with the leaders of the Defense, for what he deems their incompetence and corruption.
Today he even went so far as to denounce the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff “for genocide of the Russian people“, although there is no official confirmation from the Russian authorities.
With military censorship launched in the aftermath of the war, which punishes those who discredit the army with prison terms, for many observers the fact that Prigozhin is free to speak so explicitly indicates a kind of approval on the part of the Kremlin.
In his speech, Proigozhin accused Russia’s military leadership of “poorly planning” the invasion and “embarrassing” the military after a series of battlefield setbacks last year. “Shoigu killed thousands of Russian soldiers in the first days of the war,” he denounced.
“Those bastards mentally ill they decided ‘Okay, we’ll throw in a few thousand more Russians as’ cannon fodder. ‘They will die under artillery fire, but we will get what we want,” Prigozhin continued. “That’s why it has become a protracted war,” he added.
The head of Wagner denounces the extermination of the Russian military
Prigozhin also accused the oligarchs linked to the Kremlin of trying to plunder Ukraine’s resources after its military capture and the appointment of a puppet regime in Kiev. “The task was to divide up material assets in Ukraine. There was widespread theft in Donbas, but they wanted more.”
Some analysts have interpreted Prigozhin’s latest comments as a sign of his growing political ambitions also in view of next year’s presidential elections.
Prigozhin also spoke about the ongoing counter-offensive of the Ukrainian forces in equally critical termsstating that the Russian army is withdrawing from the partially occupied regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
“We are washing ourselves in blood. Nobody brings reserves. What they tell us is a deep deception,” Prigozhin said, referring to claims by Putin and Shoigu that Russia is successfully repelling Ukrainian counterattacks.
Putin briefed on the Prigozhin case
Russian President Vladimir Putin is aware of the situation regarding the founder of the Wagner group, Evgheni Prigozhin, and all necessary measures have been taken, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters, as reported by Russian agencies. “President Putin has been informed of all events relating to Prigozhin. The necessary measures are being taken“, he said. The Russian Defense Ministry said that all the information disseminated on social networks on behalf of Prigozhin about the bombing by the Russian military of Wagner’s rearguard bases are not true and represent “provocations”.
FSB appeal to mercenaries: “Don’t listen to Prigozhin and arrest him”
The FSB, which has opened a criminal case for “armed insurrection” against the head of WagnerEvgheni Prigozhin asked Russian mercenaries “not to listen” to his calls to overthrow the Russian military leaders and indeed, “to take measures for his arrest”. This was reported by the Russian media, quoting an FSB statement, which also announced that Prigozhin’s words are considered “calls to start an armed civil conflict on the territory of the Russian Federation”.
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