Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has always had a tense relationship with the Russian military high command, although he has taken an increasingly obvious role in the war with Ukraine. In these last months the tension has grown in crescendo until reaching the rebellion this Friday.
He has been using his social networks as pressure to get what he wants and to level accusations against Russia’s leaders. Until this Friday, Putin had not reacted to the accusations by Prigozhin, with whom he has maintained a close relationship since he was deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg.
In January, Prigozhin tried to take full credit for the seizure of Soledar, a salt-mining town in the Donetsk region, and accused the Russian Defense Ministry of trying to steal “glory” from Wagner.
His problems with the Russian high command escalated in May, when he repeatedly complained that the Russian army did not provide Wagner with enough ammunition to seize Bakhmut and threatened to withdraw his men. “I am going to remove Wagner’s units from Bakhmut because, with a lack of ammunition, they are doomed to die senseless,” he said then.
He lashed out at the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov. “These are the boys who died today, the blood is still fresh,” he said in a video showing rows of corpses. “The blood is still fresh,” he was saying, pointing to the corpses behind him. “They came here as volunteers and they’re dying so you guys can sit like fat cats in your fancy offices.”
He claimed that the casualties would be less if the Wagner units received the proper amount of ammunition. “Listen to me, bastards. They were someone’s parents and children. That garbage that does not give us ammunition will have breakfast in hell!”, says Wagner’s boss, who accuses Shoigu and Gerasimov of “being in expensive clubs” while their children ” enjoy life, making videos for YouTube”. “They believe that they are the owners of life and that they have the right to get rid of these lives!” He said.
“I am going to remove Wagner’s units from Bakhmut because, with a lack of ammunition, they are doomed to die wanton.”
At the beginning of June Wagner announced that he would not sign any contract of subordination with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who had ordered all “volunteer detachments” to sign contracts with his Prigozhin said then that Wagner was completely subservient to the interests of Russia, but that their command structure would be disrupted if they were to report to military commanders
This Friday, Wagner’s boss once again used his social networks to ensure that the Russian army retreats in Kherson and Zaporizhia while the Defense Ministry “deceives” President Putin.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces crush the Russian Army, while we bathe in blood, nobody sends reserves, there is no command,” he said in a video posted on Telegram.
Despite this situation, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff “still believe that they can win this war.”
“But, in the absence of a command, in the absence of military successes, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense thoroughly deceives the president,” he said.
He again attacked Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, describing him as a “trembling grandfather” who would have to be tried for the death of “tens of thousands of young people” and assured that the operation in Ukraine has mediocre planning that would have been success if “naked and barefoot soldiers had not been sent to the front”.
On Friday night Progozhin accused the Russian Defense Minister of ordering shelling attacks on his bases. Hours later, in the early hours of this Saturday, he assured that Wagner’s forces had entered the Russian city of Rostov without encountering resistance.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
