Wagner Group leader accuses Russian military leadership of trying to destroy his militia: ‘It can amount to high treason’

Yevgeny Prigozhinfounder of Wagner Groupon Tuesday accused the Russian Defense Minister and the Chief of the General Staff of depriving his fighters of ammunition and of trying to destroy the militia of mercenariesactions which, according to him, amount to treason.

Prigozhina former restaurateur close to President Putin, has taken on a more public role since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began a year ago, with his Wagner Group at the head of the battle that Russia has been waging for months over the city of Bakhmutin the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

” There is only one direct opposition”, Prigozhin said in a voicemail posted on his Telegram channel. It can be likened to high treason”.

This is the second such message published by Prigozhin in two days. On Monday he complained that anonymous officials refused to supply Wagner out of personal animosity towards him.

Seemingly angry and sometimes speaking in a loud voice, Prigozhin blamed the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei ShoiguAlready Valery Gerasimovthe highest ranking military officer in the country, deliberately causing a shortage of weaponswhich he believed was causing increased casualties among Wagner’s troops fighting around Bakhmut.

“The Chief of Staff and the Minister of Defense give orders not only not to supply ammunition to Wagner’s PMC (private military company), but not to help him with air transport,” he said. said Prigozhin.

His words come amid reports of sharp declines in the Group As the battle escalates Bakhmut.

According UNITED STATES, more than 30,000 Wagner Group mercenaries have died since the start of the war in Ukraine, 9,000 of them since last mid-December.

The paramilitary organization has been leading the offensive in Donetsk for months. Wagner claims to have conquered ground without the help of the regular army, which led to friction between Wagner and Russian military commanderswhom Prigozhin blamed for being bogged down in a “monstrous” bureaucracy.

The paramilitary group played a key role in January in the capture of the nearby Ukrainian town of solderan achievement that was quickly called into question by the Russian Ministry of Defense and sparked a clash with Prigozhinwho accused the ministry of wanting “steal their victory”

Once discreet, Wagner’s boss has long been a inseparable ally of the Kremlinfor whom he carried out some orders.

For years he denied it, but he finally publicly admitted being the founder of the Wagner Group, whose paramilitaries were seen in Middle East and in Africa.

He also admitted to having participated in Russian interference in the American elections and to having created a “troll farm” to carry out propaganda and disinformation campaigns on the Internet.

Prigozhin himself was imprisoned in Russia for almost a decade at the end of the Soviet era, and later sold hot dogs in St. Petersburg, before moving into the upper echelons as a hotelier. .

(With information from Reuters and AFP)

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