In a video published by the press service of the head of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin, he says that Russia's war against Ukraine was unleashed by a "clan of oligarchs", "which now actually controls Russia", and Ukraine was not going to attack the Russian Federation, while he, as usual, criticizes the Ministry of Defense.
According to Prigozhin, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff “still hope that they can win this war,” but at the same time they “thoroughly” deceive Russian President Putin, declaring unrealistic losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Prigozhin says reports of "60 Leopard [tanks] destroyed" and "thousands" of Ukrainian soldiers killed are "complete, total nonsense." When the “deepest deceptions” are revealed, it will be too late, and “a bunch of these scum, realizing that they have pissed off a colossal piece of territory, will gather and say that they have regrouped to more advantageous positions.”
Prigozhin notes that the war was started through the fault of a certain “oligarchic clan” that rules Russia, and the situation on the contact line in Donbas in early 2022 did not differ from that which had been there for many years. Ukraine did not show "crazy aggression" and did not want to attack the Russian Federation together with NATO.
Prigozhin calls the very attack of Russia on Ukraine a “badly planned operation,” when the military leadership of the Russian Federation decided that no one would stop Russian troops during a campaign against Kyiv. He, however, expresses the opinion that everything would have been so if the “degenerates” from the General Staff “did not line up long columns” of “naked and barefoot soldiers”, who had little ammunition.
First of all, he blamed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for these mistakes, who by mid-March 2022 was a “shaking grandfather” and was only thinking about how to get out of this situation. Prigozhin blamed him for the death of "tens of thousands" of soldiers.
The head of the PMC Wagner said that a decree was allegedly being prepared for Shoigu on awarding him the title of marshal and the second star of the Hero of Russia. And the whole war was needed in order for "a bunch of creatures to simply triumph and promote themselves." He also stated that the "holy war with those who offend the Russian people" has turned into "racketeering and rat-mongering."
Recall that recidivist criminal Yevgeny Prigozhin was tried under the articles “theft”, “robbery”, “fraud” and “involvement of a minor in criminal activity”. According to the materials of one of the criminal cases, he and his accomplices attacked a woman, strangled her and, when she lost consciousness, took off her earrings and boots. In 2022, Putin awarded Prigogine the title of Hero of Russia.
