Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founding father of the Wagner mercenary group, has warned that Russia might face a revolution much like these of 1917 and lose the battle in Ukraine except the elite will get severe about combating the struggle.
Russia’s strongest mercenary stated his political outlook was dominated by love for the motherland and serving President Vladimir Putin, however cautioned that Russia was in peril of turmoil.
Prigozhin stated there was a so-called optimistic view that the West would get uninterested in struggle and China would dealer a peace deal, however that he didn’t actually consider in that interpretation.
As an alternative, he stated, Ukraine was getting ready a counteroffensive geared toward pushing Russian troops again to its borders earlier than 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. Ukraine would attempt to encircle Bakhmut, the main target of intense combating within the east, and assault Crimea, he added.
“More than likely of all, this state of affairs won’t be good for Russia so we have to put together for an arduous struggle,” he stated in an interview posted on his Telegram channel.
“We’re in such a situation that we might f***ing lose Russia – that’s the predominant downside … We have to impose martial regulation.”
Prigozhin stated his nickname “Putin’s chef” was silly as he couldn’t cook dinner and had by no means been a chef, quipping that “Putin’s butcher” could be a extra apt nickname.
“They may have simply given me a nickname straight away — Putin’s butcher, and all the things would have been fantastic,” he stated.
If unusual Russians continued getting their youngsters again in zinc coffins whereas the kids of the elite “shook their a***s” within the solar, he stated, Russia would face turmoil alongside the traces of the 1917 revolutions that ushered in a civil struggle.
“This divide can finish as in 1917 with a revolution,” he stated.
“First the troopers will rise up, and after that – their family members will stand up,” he stated. “There are already tens of 1000’s of them – family members of these killed. And there’ll most likely be lots of of 1000’s – we can’t keep away from that.”
The defence ministry didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Prigozhin criticised Russia’s post-Soviet coverage in the direction of Ukraine and solid the implementation of what the Kremlin calls the “particular navy operation” as unclear, contradictory and confused.
Russia’s navy management, he stated, had “f***ed up” repeatedly throughout the struggle. The said purpose of demilitarising Ukraine, he stated, had failed.
Prigozhin stated Soviet chief Josef Stalin wouldn’t have accepted such failure. A cross-border assault into Russia’s Belgorod area indicated the failures of the navy management, he stated, warning that Ukraine would search to strike deeper into Russia.
Russia wanted to mobilise extra males and to gear the economic system solely to struggle, Prigozhin stated.
Wagner, he stated, had recruited round 50,000 convicts throughout the struggle, of whom about 20 per cent had perished. Across the identical quantity of his contract troopers – 10,000 – had perished, he stated.
In Bakhmut, Prigozhin stated, Ukraine had suffered casualties of fifty,000-70,000 wounded and 50,000 useless.
Reuters is unable to confirm casualty claims from both aspect, and neither Russia nor Ukraine launch figures on their very own casualties. Ukraine has stated Russian losses are far larger than its losses.
Prigozhin stated Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu must be changed by Colonel Normal Mikhail Mizintsev whereas Chief of the Normal Employees Valery Gerasimov must be changed by Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed “Normal Armageddon” by the Russian media.
Requested about his political credo: “I like my motherland, I serve Putin, Shoigu must be judged and we’ll combat on.”
