Europe

Prigozhin shown talking to Wagner fighters in video

Chief tells soldiers they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now

In the video, Yevgeny Prigozhin apparently tells Wagner soldiers to gather their strength for Africa. File photograph: AP

Wed Jul 19 2023 - 19:13

Russia’s mutinous mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was shown in a video on Wednesday welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now but ordering them to gather their strength for Africa.

Wagner’s failed mutiny on June 23rd-24th has been interpreted by the West as a challenge to president Vladimir Putin’s rule, illustrating the weakness of the 70-year-old Kremlin chief and the strain of the Ukraine war on the Russian state.

The footage, reposted by his press service on Telegram, is the first video evidence of Mr Prigozhin’s whereabouts since the night of the mutiny.

In the video, the authenticity of which Reuters could not immediately verify, a man whose voice and language sounded like Prigozhin’s, is heard welcoming his men.

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“Welcome, lads. Welcome to Belarusian soil,” Mr Prigozhin says.

“We fought honourably,” says Mr Prigozhin. “You have done a great deal for Russia. What is going on at the front is a disgrace that we do not need to get involved in.”

Mr Putin initially said he would crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolutions of 1917 but, hours later, a deal was clinched to allow Mr Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus.

Since he was last seen leaving the Russian city of Rostov on June 24th, mystery has surrounded Mr Prigozhin’s fate. It is also unclear what Wagner, which he said had 25,000 men, would do next.

The video was shot after night had fallen, though it is possible to discern what looks like Mr Prigozhin’s profile and a group of men.

[ Russian attack on Odesa is bid to prevent grain shipments, says Ukraine ]

It showed him receiving a Wagner black flag, decorated with the motto “Blood, honour, Motherland, Courage”, from their camp in southern Russia.

Belarus said last week that Wagner fighters were instructing its soldiers at a military range southeast of Minsk.

Mr Prigozhin says in the video that his men should behave well towards the locals and orders them to train the Belarusian army and gather their strength for a “new journey to Africa”.

“And, perhaps, we will return to the SMO (special military operation in Ukraine) at some point, when we are sure that we will not be forced to shame ourselves,” Mr Prigozhin says.

Wagner was founded by Mr Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, a former special forces officer in Russia’s GRU military intelligence, as a way for the country to get involved in wars in countries including Syria, Libya and Mali with full deniability.

Wagner helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014, fought Islamic State militants in Syria, operated in the Central African Republic and Mali and took the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for Russia earlier this year with considerable losses on both sides.

Mr Prigozhin had said his mutiny was not aimed at toppling Mr Putin but at settling scores with defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov. – Reuters

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