Head of the mercenary group WagnerYevgeny Prigozhin announced that his private army crossed the border with Russia and after making a statement in absentia against the Russian Ministry of Defense, he enters the Rostov region in the south of the country. “We crossed the state border everywhere. The border guards came out and embraced our fighters. Now we are entering Rostov,” he said on his Telegram channel.
According to Wagner’s boss, “Defense units, or rather, The soldiers who took action to block our way stood aside.“.”We do not fight children, we do not kill children.. (Russian Defense Minister Sergei) Shoigu is the one who killed children and threw unprepared soldiers into battle, including recruits.” According to Wagner’s boss, the Department of Defense “sent children at 18 who could be our children. “This is why these children will live and return to their mothers. We only fight against professionals, but if someone stops us on the road, we will destroy them. We reach out to everyone, we do not spit on our hands. We continue, we will continue until the end,” he said.
Prigozhin responded to calls by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB, formerly the KGB) to arrest him, saying he had “fraternity, justice, honor and shame”. “You don’t have these feelings, and that’s why you can’t understand more than betrayal,” he concluded.
The FSB today urged the mercenaries of the Wagner group not to “make an irreparable mistake”, not to follow Prigozhin’s orders and “take measures for his arrest.” According to the organization, “Prigozhin’s statements and actions are actually a call to the beginning of the war. An armed internal conflict on the territory of Russia“.
Wagner’s boss today accused the Ministry of Defense of attacking its positions and promised to punish the criminals. Prigozhin denied that it was a coup, “We are 25 thousand people and we will find out why there is chaos in the country.” He assured that the “desire to end the reigning “chaos” was not a “coup” but a “march for justice” and that military operations would not be affected by Wagner’s actions. According to Prigozhin, after “taking care of” those who “destroyed” the Russian soldiers, Wagner’s warriors “will return to the front.”
In fact, this morning Prigozhin’s forces Shot down a Russian army helicopter. “At this moment, a helicopter opened fire on a civilian convoy, it was shot down by Wagner’s troops,” he said in an audio recording posted on his Telegram channel.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitri Peskov stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about the “situation around Prigozhin” and the relevant measures were taken. According to TASS, the Russian Police reported that in this context, the Russian capital has strengthened its security measures and placed additional guards on the most important targets.