Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has vowed to defy an order from Russia’s Defense Ministry to fall under the regular army’s command—and he now says he’ll take other defectors under his wing to build the mercenary group’s ranks.
His comments, perhaps the biggest indication yet of a potential military coup, come after Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu signed a decree mandating all volunteer fighters to sign a contract with the ministry by July 1. The move is widely seen as a bid to centralize military control and limit Prigozhin’s influence in the war after he spent months airing the dirty laundry of Russian infighting and, most recently, was accused of having his fighters routinely abduct and torture regular Russian troops.
But according to Prigozhin, it all boils down to jealousy. Shoigu, he said, “can’t stand anybody who does something better than he does. And that’s why everyone is supposed to lick his boots. Wagner has never done that.”
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He went on to say the mercenary group was already taking in volunteers who don’t want to answer directly to the Defense Ministry.
“Volunteer units are contacting us. We are taking them into our ranks as separate assault detachments and building them into our general command and control system, in which we cover them with artillery, aviation, provide intelligence and everything that is necessary,” he said via his press service.
Separately, he accused the country’s Defense Ministry of repeatedly attempting to “destroy” the mercenary group.
“We’re not just talking about some kind of interference, but about deliberate, physical destruction. Both then and now,” he said, claiming top military brass intentionally failed to inform Wagner of an impending U.S. airstrike in Syria in 2018 that killed several of the group’s mercenaries.
More recently, he said, the Defense Ministry “tried to close [Wagner mercenaries in Bakhmut] without any ammunition.”
Prigozhin claimed he confronted Shoigu about the first incident at an event in the Kremlin in 2018. “I approached him and asked: ‘Can I talk to you about the situation that occurred on February 8 near Deir ez-Zor?’ He turned, calmly and arrogantly replied: ‘You wanted to be a hero? You played the hero. All the heroes are here now, in this hall,’ he said, casting his hand over those in expensive suits. “And you were just out of line.’”
Of Russia’s top military brass, he said, “They wore beautiful epaulets, but Wagner won in all countries of the world. This is where the jealousy comes from.”
The latest phase in the Prigozhin vs. Shoigu feud comes as ordinary Russians have reportedly shown more interest in the mercenary boss than President Vladimir Putin. The independent outlet Verstka reported Tuesday that in May, Russians searched the internet for information on Prigozhin twice as much as they did for Putin.
