Owner Of Russia’s Wagner Group Says Russia Killed His Troops, Vows To ‘Put An End To’ Defense Minister

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of Russia’s feared Wagner paramilitary group, released a series of messages on Friday accusing Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of launching attacks against his soldiers fighting in Ukraine and vowed to take immediate action on the streets of Moscow.

Prigozhin said in a video statement that Shoigu lied to Russian President Vladimir Putin about what was going on with Ukraine in order to stoke Putin into invading the country.

“The war was needed so that a handful of scumbags could have a blast and get PR attention showing how strong the army is,” he said. “The war was needed not in order to return the Russian citizens to our bosom and not in order to ‘demilitarize and denazify Ukraine’.”

Prigozhin shared a message on his personal Telegram channel that accused Russia of launching an attack on his soldiers.

“A missile attack was carried out on a PMC Wagner base,” the message said. “There are many casualties. According to the information of the fighters who are witnesses, the attack was carried out from a rear direction – that is, it was carried out by soldiers of the Russian Ministry of Defense.”

Prigozhin said that he had 25,000 men and they were going to “figure out why chaos is happening in the country.”

“The evil that the military leadership of the country brings forward must be stopped. They have forgotten the word justice, and we will return it,” he said in an audio recording. “Anyone attempting resistance will be considered a threat and immediately destroyed. This includes all the checkpoints on our path and any aircraft above our heads.”

He said that Russia’s Ministry of Defense tried to take control of his forces — which are heavily armed with advanced military hardware — last month by having all his troops sign contracts with the Russian government.

“But seeing that we are unbroken, they launched missile strikes on our rear bases. An enormous amount of our combat comrades have died. We will decide how to respond to this crime. The next step is ours,” he said. “This is not a military coup, this is a march of justice. Our actions do not impede the troops.”

He said that he was determined to “put an end to this disgrace”.