Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin says he has asked Russia’s Investigative Committee to investigate “crimes” committed by Defense Ministry officials during the war against Ukraine.
Long a thorn in the Defense Ministry’s side, the mercenary boss announced the news via his press service Wednesday: “I sent letters to the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation today with a request to check a number of top functionaries of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the fact of the commission of a crime in the preparation and during the conduct of the [special military operation]. These letters will not be published, due to the fact that this will be dealt with by the investigating authorities.”
The announcement came shortly after Prigozhin called for a full-scale mobilization for the war, remarks the Kremlin was immediately forced to respond to by reassuring citizens there were no plans for a nationwide mobilization.
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It also came after Prigozhin accused a “special cyber unit of the Defense Ministry” of targeting him using social media photos and videos of his son Pavel and daughter Veronika partying with friends during the height of fighting in Ukraine’s Bakhmut. The videos, circulated among Russian Telegram channels this week, showed Prigozhin’s son and daughter apparently singing along to a song boasting that they were “from the elite.”
Prigozhin had repeatedly criticized top military brass for what he described as the “children of the elite” being shielded from fighting.
