Prigozhin: ‘march of justice’ was started due to attempts to disband PMC Wagner

PMC Wagner’s Yevgeny Prigozhin has issued his first statement since Saturday, stating reasons behind the armed rebellion.

“[Our] unit was to be disbanded on 1 July 2023 due to plots and ill decisions. The council of commanders gathered together and then informed the fighters of this. None of them agreed to sign contracts with the Defence Ministry. Everybody realised that this would lead to total loss of combat effectiveness. Skilled fighters and commanders would be used as cannon fodder.”

Prigozhin stated that only 1 to 2% of the Wagner fighters agreed to join the side of the Defence Ministry. He also stated that several Wagner mercenaries had been injured during the rebellion. Two servicemen of the Russian military who joined the rebels were killed.

“We put our machinery on low roaders and were prepared to head for Rostov-on-Don on 30 June and hand over the machinery in front of the military HQ for everyone to see if the decision was not made,”

Prigozhin said.

In his statement, Wagner’s leader noted several times that his mercenaries had covered a distance of over 700 km, but were unwilling to “spill the blood of Russian soldiers”. He also claimed that no servicemen had been killed on the ground. Prigozhin added that he felt bad about the fact that PMC Wagner had to execute strikes against Russian aircraft.

On 23 June, the Wagner Group announced that units of the Russian Defence Ministry had struck its mercenary camp. The ministry denied this. Later, Prigozhin announced a “march of justice” on Russian territory.

In the early hours of 24 June, the FSB opened a criminal case against Prigozhin for organising an armed uprising. The special service stated that the Wagner chief’s actions are “essentially calls for starting an armed civil conflict” on Russian territory and are “a knife in the back” for Russian troops.

By the afternoon of 24 June, the Wagner troops had taken control of Russia’s southern cities of Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh, and started advancing on Moscow. However, in the evening of the same day, Belarus’ Alyaksandar Lukashenka came up with a statement saying he held talks with Prigozhin and managed to convince the insurgent to stop the advance on Moscow.

Later on, Prigozhin announced that the Wagnerites would return to their field camps.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on the evening of 24 June that criminal charges against Prigozhin had been dropped and that the Wagner chief would leave for Belarus.