The founder of the Wagner mercenary group on Friday claimed Russia was not facing a serious security threat from Ukraine before the war began—despite Russian President Vladimir Putin justifying his ruthless invasion in part on the grounds of a growing threat from NATO on his borders. “Right now, the [Russian Defense Ministry] is trying to deceive the society and the president and tell a story that there was insane aggression from the Ukrainian side and they were going to attack us together with the whole NATO bloc,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a rambling video released by his press service. He made his comment in a section of the half-hour video explaining “why the special operations started.” Prigozhin earlier this week accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of covering up “very serious losses” among Russian forces in Ukraine.