Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Friday said Russia’s war in Ukraine is intended to benefit Russian elites and accused Moscow of lying about the full-scale invasion launched last year, escalating his feud with top Russian leadership to new heights.
In a video released on his Telegram channel and circulated widely on the internet, Prigozhin countered Russian President Vladimir Putin’s argument that invading Ukraine was necessary to denazify and demilitarize the country. Putin has also accused Kyiv of persecuting ethnic Russians and of acting as a puppet and “battering ram” against Russia on behalf of Western allies.
“The war was not needed to return our Russian citizens and not to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine,” Prigozhin said in the video, claiming it was instead launched to benefit Russian leaders. “The war was needed by oligarchs. It was needed by the clan that is today practically ruling in Russia.”
Prigozhin claimed the goal of the “special military operation,” the official name for the war in Russia, was to install pro-Russian and Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk, who is living in exile in Russia, as president of Ukraine and to divide up the assets of the country.
“They were stealing loads in Donbas, they wanted more,” Prigozhin said, likely referring to the Russian-backed resistance launched in eastern Ukraine in 2014. He also said there was never any plan for Ukraine or the Western security alliance NATO to attack Russia.
Prigozhin, whose mercenary fighters have played a key role in the war in Ukraine, has frequently railed against Russian elites, often targeting Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, Gen. Valery Gerasimov.
Analysts say Prigozhin is engaging in an unclear strategy, possibly intended to boost his public profile as a populist leader or gain influence in Moscow. Prigozhin has been known to distort facts, and it’s unclear how truthful he has been in his public remarks.
Wagner Group seized the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine last month and lost at least 20,000 soldiers in the battle. Throughout the months-long siege of the city, Prigozhin slammed Shoigu and Gerasimov for failing to supply enough ammunition and repeatedly called them cowards.
After the seizure of Bakhmut, Prigozhin accused Russian leadership of floundering in the war effort and suggesting that inequality and imbalanced elitist power could lead to a revolution, similar to the Bolshevik communist overthrow in 1917.
Prigozhin also clashed with Russian soldiers late last month when his fighters pulled out of Bakhmut to regroup and recover, accusing a squadron of planting explosives and firing at his men when they moved to disarm them.
Prigozhin showed a video of a captured Russian officer allegedly saying he was intoxicated when he gave the order to fire and had a personal resentment against Wagner Group.
Putin has not publicly responded to Prigozhin, but Russia has moved to rein in Wagner Group, forcing allied fighters of the Russian army to sign a contract that would allow Moscow to exert more control.
While Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov signed the order for his paramilitary forces, Prigozhin is resisting the contract, ordered by the Kremlin, as a July 1 deadline approaches.
The Friday video appears to be a personal tell-all of Prigozhin’s experience during the war in Ukraine. The Wagner chief accused Shoigu and Gerasimov of being responsible for genocide and the “murder of tens of thousands of Russian citizens.”
Prigozhin said Russia is purposely distorting facts about losses in the conflict and that when his fighters arrived in the spring of last year, victory was not possible, claiming there was “hysteria” and “no management” in the operation.
Prigozhin also said Russia was losing ground as Ukrainian forces move forward in the counteroffensive launched earlier this month, countering the narrative from Putin that Ukraine is suffering a “catastrophic” defeat in the offensive push and stands “no chance” of winning.
“On the ground now, as of today, the Russian army is retreating,” he said. “We’re washing the blood. … There is no control. Same hysteria.”