The leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has released an 11-minute audio message after leading a march on Moscow. Here is an edited transcript of what he said:
The Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) is probably the most experienced and combat-ready unit in Russia, and possibly in the world. (It is made up of) Motivated fighters, who have performed a huge number of missions in the interests of Russia – in Africa, in Arab countries and around the world. Most recently, this unit has achieved good results in Ukraine. (Yet) As a result of…ill-conceived decisions, this unit was due to cease to exist on 1 July 2023.
A council of commanders met and passed this information (that they would be amalgamated into the Russian army) on to the fighters themselves…Those (Wagner) fighters who have decided that they are ready to move to…(the Russian army) have done so. But this number is estimated at two per cent (of Wagner fighters)…
We have been adamantly opposed to what they (the Russian Ministry of Defence) want to do…the decision to move us to the Ministry of Defence was made at the most inopportune moment.
Nevertheless, we were…collecting everything that was needed (to facilitate the transition). We were making an inventory and were going to go out in a convoy to Rostov on 30 June and publicly hand over the equipment near the headquarters of the special military operation, in case no decision (about our future) was taken. Despite the fact that we did not show any aggression, we were attacked by missiles, and immediately after that by helicopters. About 30 members of Wagner were killed, some (others) were injured.
This was a trigger for the board of commanders who decided that we must move immediately. I made a statement in which I said that we were not going to (respond with) aggression in any way. But if there were attacks on us, we would perceive it as an attempt to annihilate (us) and we would respond.
During the entire march, which lasted 24 hours, one of the columns went to Rostov, the other in the direction of Moscow. In one day, we travelled 780 kilometres (485 miles). Not a single soldier was killed on the ground. We regret that we had to hit air assets, but these assets dropped bombs and launched missile strikes. (We were) 200 or so kilometres short of Moscow. During this time, all military facilities along the road were blocked and disarmed. No one on the ground was killed. Among the fighters of the Wagner PMCs, several people were wounded; two Russian soldiers, who joined us of their own will, were killed.
None of the fighters of the Wagner PMCs were forced into this campaign and everyone knew its ultimate goal. The purpose of the campaign was to prevent the destruction of the Wagner PMCs and to bring to justice those individuals who, by their unprofessional actions, committed a huge number of mistakes during the special military operation. This was demanded by the public. All the soldiers who saw us on the march supported us.
We…stopped (marching) when the first assault squad, which (was within) 200 kilometres (120 miles) of Moscow, deployed its artillery, made a reconnaissance of the area, and it became obvious that…a lot of blood would be shed. So we felt that the demonstration of what we were going to do was enough.
Our decision to deploy was (based on) two major factors. The first is that we did not want to spill Russian blood. The second factor was that we sought to demonstrate our protest, not to overthrow the government of the country.
At this time, Alexander Lukashenko (the Belarusian leader) extended his hand and offered to find solutions for the further operation of the Wagner PMCs in the legitimate jurisdiction. The columns turned back and went to the field camps.
I want to point out that our march of justice…showed a lot of those things we talked about earlier. There was a serious security problem all over the country. We blockaded everything. Military units. Airfields that were in our way. In 24 hours, we covered the distance that corresponds to the distance from the starting point of the Russian troops from 24 February, 2022 to Kiev, and from the same point to Uzhgorod.
So, if the actions of 24 February, 2022 at the time of the start of the special operation were performed by Wagner units…then perhaps the special operation would have lasted a day.
It is clear that there were other problems (with the war effort). But we have shown the level of organisation which the Russian army should meet.
When on 23 and 24 June we were passing by the Russian cities, civilians greeted us with Russian flags and logos and flags of Wagner PMC. They were…happy when we came and when we passed by. Many of them still write words of support. Some are disappointed that we stopped, because, in the ‘Justice March’ – apart from our struggle for existence – they saw support for the fight against bureaucracy and other ills that exist in our country today.
These are the basic questions to which I can give answers. In order to avoid misinterpretations, both in Russian social networks and media, as well as in foreign networks. So, we started our march because of injustice. We have not killed a single soldier on the ground. We got to within 200 kilometres of Moscow in 24 hours. We went in and took complete control of the city of Rostov. The civilians were glad to see us. We showed a masterclass: what the 24 February 2022 was supposed to look like. We had no aim of overthrowing the existing regime and the legitimately elected authorities, as has been said many times. We turned around in order not to spill the blood of Russian soldiers.
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