Wagner’s ‘march of justice’

All of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s posts about his apparent military coup

Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin released a series of announcements on June 23, accusing Russia’s Defense Ministry of intentionally striking Wagner positions. “We’re 25,000 strong, and we’re going to get to the bottom of the lawlessness in this country,” he said, adding Wagner Group had decided to “stop the evil that [Russia’s] military leadership is carrying out.” He said of Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, “This creature will be stopped.” Here’s a timeline of all Prigozhin’s announcements.

June 23, 21:09 (Moscow time)

“They deceived us despicably and tried to deprive us of the possibility of defending our homes. We were ready to make concessions to the Defense Ministry, to surrender our weapons, and to find a solution about how we’ll continue to defend our country. But that scum wouldn’t calm down. Today, seeing that we aren’t broken, they decided to launch rocket attacks on our rear camps. A huge number of fighters were killed, our comrades in arms. We’ll decide how to respond to this atrocity. The ball’s in our court.”

June 23, 21:25

The Wagner Group commanders’ council has made a decision. The evil that the country’s military leadership is carrying out must be stopped. They neglect soldiers’ lives. They’ve forgotten the word “justice” and we’re bringing it back. Those who destroyed our guys today, those who destroyed many tens of thousands of Russian soldiers’ lives will be punished.

I ask that no one put up resistance. Anyone who tries to resist we will consider a threat, and we will swiftly eliminate. Including any checkpoints we meet on the road. Any aircraft we spot above us. I ask that everyone remain calm and not succumb to provocation, and to remain at home. Be advised not to go outside along our route.

After we finish what we’ve started, we’ll return to the front to defend our Motherland. Presidential power, the government, the Internal Affairs Ministry, the National Guard, and other structures will work as they did before. We’ll deal with anyone who destroys the lives of Russian soldiers, and we’ll return to the front. Justice for the troops will be restored, and after that, justice for all of Russia.

June 23, 21:41

Shoigu just fled Rostov like a coward. At 21:00 he ran like a coward, like a girl. In order to not explain that, he ordered helicopters to destroy our guys, that’s why the rocket strike happened. This creature will be stopped.

June 23, 21:49

We’re 25,000 strong, and we’re going to get to the bottom of the lawlessness in this country. 25,000 are waiting as a tactical reserve, while the strategic reserve is the entire army and the entire country. Everyone who wants to, join us. We need to put an end to this disgrace.

June 23, 22:15

The details are becoming clear. The Defense Minister went to Rostov specially to conduct an operation to destroy Wagner Group. He used artillery and helicopters by dark to destroy us.

June 23, 22:29

This is no military coup. This is a justice march. Our actions in no way interfere with the troops.

June 23, 22:39

The majority of the troops support us strongly. We get messages like “Thanks, guys! Finally justice is coming to the army. You’ll finally get it so they give us ammunition and stop throwing us out like dead meat.” The information has just come in that the defense minister tried to hide 2,000 bodies stored in the Rostov morgue, so as not to show losses.