Prigozhin Comments On His March To Moscow

This is the first public statement by the Wagner PMC leader made after the end of the rebellion.

The press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin published an audio commentary by the Wagner PMC boss “regarding past events”.

This is Prigozhin's first public statement since the end of the rebellion. In a 12-minute audio message, Prigozhin spoke in detail about the rebellion he organized.

The Wagner PMC is the most experienced and combat-ready unit in Russia, possibly in the world.

Recently, this unit has achieved good results in Ukraine.

As a result of intrigues and ill-conceived decisions, this unit was to cease to exist from July 1.

The Council of Commanders brought the information to the fighters. No one agreed to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, since everyone understood that this would lead to a loss of combat capability and that experienced fighters would actually become cannon fodder.

Those who wanted to move to the Ministry of Defense did. But it is 1-2%.

All the arguments to keep the PMC were used, but none were implemented.

We were against this decision. It was taken at the most inopportune moment. We were going, if this decision is not accepted, to leave on June 30 and hand over the equipment near the headquarters of the special military operation.

Despite the fact that we did not show any aggression, we were hit by missiles. About 30 fighters were killed. This was the trigger that we decided to move forward immediately.

I said that we are not going to show aggression. But if they hit us, we will give an answer.

During the entire march, we covered 780 kilometers. Not a single soldier on the land was killed. We regret that we were forced to strike at air assets — but that's because they were dropping bombs.

We blocked and neutralized all military facilities that were on the way. None of those on the land died. Among us are several wounded and two dead soldiers of the Ministry of Defense, who joined us of their own free will.

The aim of the march was to avoid destruction of Wagner and to hold to account the officials who through their unprofessional actions have committed a massive number of errors.

All the soldiers who saw us supported us.

We stopped at the moment when the first detachment deployed its artillery, made reconnaissance — and it became obvious that a lot of blood would be shed. We felt that the demonstration was sufficient. We turned back because:

1) we did not want to shed Russian blood.

2) we marched to demonstrate our protest, and not to overthrow the government in the country.

At this time, Lukashenka extended his hand and offered to find solutions for the further work of PMCs in legal jurisdiction. The columns turned back and went to the camps.

Note. Our march showed many things:

serious security problems throughout the country — we blocked all airfields and military units.

In 24 hours we covered the distance that is equal to the distance from the border with Ukraine to Uzhgorod. If at the beginning of the special military operation the tasks were performed by the same people as the Wagner PMC, perhaps the special operation would have lasted one day. We showed the level of organization that the Russian army should have.

As we walked past Russian cities, civilians greeted us with Russian and Wagner flags. They were all happy. Many of them still write words of support, and some are disappointed that we stopped. Because in the march of justice they saw support for the fight against bureaucracy and other ailments that exist in our country today.

These are the main questions that I can answer to avoid misunderstandings:

— we started our march because of injustice,

— on the road on the ground we did not kill a single soldier,

— we have not reached Moscow by only 200 kilometers in one day, and completely took control of Rostov,

— civilians were happy to see us,

— we showed how February 24, 2022 should have looked like,

— we did not have the goal of overthrowing the regime and the legally elected government,

— we turned back so as not to shed the blood of Russian soldiers, ”said Prigozhin.