2023-06-24 04:22:49
kyiv, Ukraine —
The owner of the Wagner Group military contractor, Yevgeny Prigozhin, launched his most direct challenge to the Kremlin on Friday, calling for an armed rebellion to oust the Russian defense minister. The Russian security services reacted immediately by opening a criminal investigation against Prigozhin and ordering his arrest.
In a show of how seriously the Kremlin took the threat, it has beefed up security in Moscow and Rostov-on-Don, where the headquarters for Russia’s southern region are located, which also oversees the fighting in Ukraine.
Prigozhin said on Saturday that his forces had reached Rostov, and that they faced no resistance from the young recruits at the checkpoints.
He added that his forces “are not fighting children… but we will destroy anyone who gets in our way.”
“We are advancing and we will go to the end,” he said.
He claimed that the chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, sent warplanes to attack Wagner’s convoys, which were traveling alongside civilian vehicles.
Prigozhin said Wagner’s camps in Ukraine were attacked by rockets, helicopter gunships and artillery fire on Gerasimov’s orders after a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu decided to kill Wagner.
Prigozhin stated that his troops would be mobilized to punish Shoigu in an armed rebellion, and urged the army not to offer resistance.
“This is not a military coup, but a march for justice,” Prigozhin declared.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee, part of the Federal Security Service (FSB for its acronym in Russian), said it had opened a criminal investigation on charges of calling for an armed rebellion. The FSB asked the soldiers of the Wagner Group to arrest Prigozhin and to refuse to follow his “criminal and treasonable orders”. He noted that his statements had been a “stab in the back to Russian troops” and said they amounted to fomenting an armed conflict in Russia.
Russia’s attorney general said the criminal investigation was justified and that a charge of armed rebellion carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed on the situation and “all necessary measures are being taken,” said Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman.
The troops of the Wagner Group have played a crucial role in the war in Ukraine, managing to capture Bakhmut, the city where the bloodiest and longest battles were fought. Prigozhin has repeatedly criticized Russia’s military leadership, accusing it of being incompetent and depriving its troops of arms and ammunition, but with his accusations and calls for an armed rebellion on Friday, it appears to have gone too far.
The Russian Defense Ministry required all military contractors to sign contracts with the agency by July 1, but Prigozhin, whose feud with the Defense Ministry dates back years, refused to comply. In a statement issued late Friday, Prigozhin said he was ready to reach an agreement with the Defense Ministry, but “we have been treacherously deceived.”
“Today they carried out a rocket attack on our rear camps, and they have killed a large number of our comrades,” he said. For its part, the Ministry of Defense denied that it had attacked the Wagner camps.
Prigozhin claimed that Shoigu personally went to the Russian military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don to lead the attack on Wagner’s troops and then “cowardly” fled.
“This scum will be stopped,” he said, referring to Shoigu.
“The evil embodied by the country’s military leadership must end,” he shouted, urging the army not to offer any resistance to Wagner in his efforts to “restore justice”.
In Rostov-on-Don, security was also increased, according to reports by the state news agency Tass. His correspondent said military and police personnel were seen on the streets, with at least one armored personnel carrier and air patrols.
Colonel General Sergei Surovikin, deputy commander of the group of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, called on Wagner’s troops to cease any movement against the army, saying it would benefit Russia’s enemies, who “are waiting to see how our situation will be exacerbated.” internal politics”.
Another senior military officer, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, called Prigozhin’s actions “insanity” that threatens to trigger a civil war in Russia.
“It is a stab in the back to the country and to the president,” he said. “It is impossible to imagine a stronger blow to the image of Russia and its armed forces. Such a provocation could only be the work of Russia’s enemies.”
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