Wagner chief says march on Moscow never intended to overthrow Putin

Wagner chief says his march on Moscow ‘was a master class’ on how Ukrainian invasion should have looked and insists he never set out to overthrow Putin but to prevent Kremlin taking control of his mercenary army

• Yevgeny Prigozhin on Saturday called off the Wagner group’s march on Moscow
• On Monday he said the uprising was to ‘prevent the destruction of Wagner PMC’
• Prigozhin expressed disgust for Russian military’s handling of the war in Ukraine 

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Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has broken his silence after abandoning his armed uprising on Saturday evening, claiming his march on Moscow was a ‘master class’ on how Russia’s assault on Kyiv should have looked.

Speaking in an 11-minute audio clip posted on Wagner-affiliated Telegram channels, Prigozhin said he only called off his group’s surge for the Russian capital to avoid spilling Russian blood, and said the uprising was intended to register a protest at the ineffectual conduct of the war in Ukraine, not to overthrow the government in Moscow.

He described his Wagner mercenary fighters as ‘perhaps the most experienced and combat effective unit in Russia, possibly in the world’, and said his private military company had done ‘an enormous amount of work in the interests of Russia’. 

And he claimed he launched the uprising to ‘prevent the destruction of the Wagner group’, adding that they had been ordered to hand over their weapons to the Russian military and had also suffered casualties in air strikes at the hands of Russia’s air force.  

‘The purpose of the campaign was to prevent the destruction of the Wagner PMC and to bring to justice those who, through their unprofessional actions, made a huge number of mistakes during the special military operation,’ Prigozhin said.

‘We went to demonstrate our protest, and not to overthrow the government in the country.’ 

It comes despite reports from Meduza that claimed the mercenary leader frantically called Putin en route to Moscow having realised he’d made a mistake, only for the Russian leader to ignore his call and serve a chilling reminder of who remains in charge.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group military company, looks out from a military vehicle on a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, Saturday, June 24, 2023

Servicemen from private military company (PMC) Wagner Group ride a tank reading ‘Siberia’ on a street in downtown Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia, 24 June 2023

Russian outlet Meduza claimed the mercenary leader frantically called Putin (pictured) en route to Moscow having realised he’d made a mistake, only for the Russian leader to ignore his call and serve a chilling reminder of who remains in charge

Prigozhin also claimed that despite not showing any aggression towards Russian forces, the Russian air force launched an aerial bombardments on his troops, killing 30 people.

Either Prigozhin is already dead or a cup of hot polonium tea awaits him in Minsk’: Stark analysis of Wagner chief’s future with his location still unknown 

This, he said, ‘was the trigger’ that motivated him to order Wagner mercenaries to seize Russian soil.

‘We covered 780 kilometers in a day. Not a single soldier on the ground was killed. We regret that we were forced to strike at [Russian] air assets, but they dropped bombs and launched missile strikes.’

Up to 15 Russian air force pilots are believed to have been killed by Wagner forces amid the attacks. 

Prigozhin concluded his statement by saying that he ordered troops to stop their surge some 200km outside Moscow in the recognition that any further progress would’ve resulted in armed conflict and many deaths. 

‘We stopped at the moment when the first assault detachment, which approached 200 kilometers to Moscow, reconnoitered the area and it was obvious that at that moment a lot of blood would be shed. 

‘Therefore, we felt that the demonstration of what we were going to do, it is sufficient.’

The Wagner leader also confirmed that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was instrumental in helping carve out a deal between the Kremlin and Prigozhin that would see the latter escape punishment for organising the uprising.

Lukashenko is said to have offered Prigozhin refuge in Minsk in turn for his safety and amnesty for any Wagner troops that participated in seizing the southern city of Rosotv-on-Don and marching for Moscow.

However, several Russian media outlets reported that a criminal investigation against Prigozhin remained open, with some legislators calling for serious punishment after Putin on Saturday declared he would ‘punish the traitors who betray Russia’. 

Wagner leader also confirmed that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (pictured) was instrumental in helping carve out a deal between the Kremlin and Prigozhin that would see the latter escape punishment for organising the uprising

embers of the Wagner Group prepare to depart from the Southern Military District’s headquarters and return to their base in Rostov-on-Don, Russia on June 24, 2023

This image captured from a video shows citizens standing near military vehicles on a street of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24, 2023

Prigozhin has long expressed hatred and distrust of Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu (centre)

Though Wagner’s armed uprising on Russian soil came as a surprise to most, Prigozhin’s hatred for Russia’s military command has long been established. 

Before the uprising, he had condemned Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian army chief General Valery Gerasimov with expletive-ridden insults for months, attacking them for failing to provide his troops with enough ammunition during the fight for the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, the war’s longest and bloodiest battle.

Putin meanwhile held calls on Monday with the leaders of Iran and Qatar, the Kremlin said, and addressed a forum of youth engineers in a recorded video message that contained no mention of the mutiny.

It is not yet clear what the fissures opened by the 24-hour rebellion will mean for the war in Ukraine, where western officials say Russia’s troops suffer low morale. Wagner’s forces were key to Russia’s only land victory in months, in Bakhmut.

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