Russia: Wagner Group Leader Vows To ‘Restore Justice’ in Alleged Coup; Updates

On 23 June, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner private mercenary group chief, began moving an armed column toward Moscow from his positions in Ukraine, citing the cause for the movement as the Russian Ministry of Defense’s attack on the group’s positions. This came against the backdrop of an ongoing conflict between Prigozhin and Russian political figures over ineffective management of military operations. Prigozhin is known for criticizing high-ranking officials, but this has never been taken seriously by Russian citizens and analysts, as it was believed that Prigozhin was loyal to Putin. He never criticized the president personally and was obliged to him due to his position of power. However, the latest events show that Prigozhin is not as predictable as the Russian and international communities believe him to be.

Earlier that day Prigozhin Press Service published on its Telegram channel the first part of an interview with Prigozhin, where he described the reasons and problems of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. He stated that nothing extraordinary that could let to the beginning of the special military operation happened in Donbass before 24 February. Prigozhin said that since 2014, Russian and Ukrainian groups have been exchanging fire along the border while the Russian generals were embezzling money, but the Ministry of Defense announced that Ukraine and the entire NATO bloc were going to attack Russia. The special military operation was kept secret so nobody was really ready for it; however, the new maps with the territories acquired were already prepared.

Prigozhin then talked about the incapability of the Russian Army to conduct and win wars. He insisted that all the combat tasks in Syria were performed by the Wagner group but Russian Army generals were getting rewarded. He faulted the Russian defense minister personally for this state of the Russian Army. In the video he called the military leadership “mentally ill bastards” for sending young boys to death, lamenting the lack of proper planning or success of the special operation. He said: “There is only visibility of the progress, the soldiers from the Ministry of Defense were thrown away like meat” and “since there is no management – 80% of soldiers are already dead.”

Speaking about the true reasons for the military operation, Prigozhin noted that the Russian defense minister needed the war to become a marshal and chief of staff, oligarchs needed it to gain more wealth, others needed it to gain publicity, and Russia needed it to appoint its own president of Ukraine.

However, as regards the relationship between the Wagner group and the government, Prigozhin once again accused the Ministry of Defense of not giving them ammunition at the right time. He said that all the ammunition was in Moscow’s suburbs in case of an attack. He highlighted that the “enemy” did not spare any ammunition. 

Telegram channel “Prigozhin Press Service” then started posting audio messages from Prigozhin.

In the first statement, number 1833, Prigozhin stated that seeing that Wagner group was not broken, “bastards” struck their positions. A huge number of comrades-in-arms died, and he promised to decide how to respond to this villainy.

Twenty minutes later, in statement Prigozhin 1834, Prigozhin stated that the council of Wagner group commanders made the decision that the evil carried out by the military leadership of the country must be stopped. He noted that leadership disregarded the lives of soldiers and had forgotten the word “justice.” Prigozhin vowed that Wagner will restore it. He urged Russian soldiers not to resist, as those who try would be considered a threat and “destroyed immediately.” He said: “After we finish what we started, we will return to the front to defend our homeland. Presidential power, the government, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the National Guard will continue to operate as usual. We will deal with those who destroy Russian soldiers and return to the front. Justice in the Russian army will be restored, and then justice throughout Russia.”

It is noteworthy that Prigozhin did not mention Putin’s name at all in all of his addresses.

The Telegram channel posted various appeals subsequently:

1835: “[Russian Defense Minister Sergei] Shoigu cowardly fled from Rostov to avoid explaining why he killed our guys.”

1836: “There are 25,000 of us, and we are going to figure out why lawlessness is happening in the country. Whoever wants, join us. We need to put an end to this lawlessness.”

1838: “This is not a military coup, this is a march of justice. Our actions do not interfere with the troops.”

1839: “Most of the military strongly support us. Justice will finally come to the Army. In the Rostov morgue, the Minister of Defense ordered to hide 2,000 bodies stored there to avoid showing the losses.”

1840: “At the moment, we have crossed all state borders. Border guards came out to meet and hugged our fighters. Now we are entering Rostov. The border guards stepped aside. We do not kill children; Shoigu kills children. He put 18-year-old boys against us. These guys will live, but we will destroy everything that stands in our way. We give our hand. Do not spit in this hand. This is brotherhood, this is justice, this is conscience. This is what we have.”

1841: “Just now, the Chief of Staff gave the command to raise the planes and fire at the column. They don’t care who they kill. The pilots refused to carry out criminal orders.”

Reactions of Russian Military, Authorities

Army General Sergey Surovikin and Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeev were the first to address Prigozhin and speak about his “march of justice”.

Army General Sergey Surovikin, nicknamed “Syrian Butcher,” addressed the Wagner group fighters: “We have gone a difficult path together, we are of one blood. I urge you to stop, the enemy is just waiting for us to escalate the internal political situation. We cannot play into the hands of the opponent. We need to restore the will and orders of the President. Stop the columns and solve all problems peacefully.”

Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeev stated: “I performed combat missions with you in 2014, 2015, 2016. I have respect for you, but what is happening now is a glaring fact that I cannot explain as insanity. Our country is in the most difficult position now, when the entire Western world has risen against us. When ammunition and weapons come from all over the world, such things, someone’s provocative ideas, will lead to huge losses, and primarily political losses. Imagine how the West will perceive with enthusiasm what you are trying to do now. No matter how noble your intentions are, as you were told, this is a blow to the country and the president’s back. Only the president has the right to appoint the top leadership of the armed forces, and you are trying to encroach on his power. This is a coup. I beg you – think again. It is impossible to come up with a greater blow to the image of Russia and its armed forces now. Such a provocation could only have been made by enemies of the Russian Federation. I am asking you to stop now, there was and will be no use of weapons against you. We still had enough to unleash a civil war at the moment. Think again.”

On 23 June, Surovikin’s appeal was duplicated in the second special report on Channel One, the main state media, which published two urgent reports devoted to Prigozhin. In addition to Surovikin’s speech, the issue also contained the Ministry of Defense of Russia’s appeal from its official Telegram channel, saying that all messages spread on behalf of Yevgeny Prigozhin did not correspond to reality and were an information provocation, as the Armed Forces of Russia continued to carry out combat missions. The Ministry of Defense stated that the Kiev regime took advantage of the destabilization of the situation and units were being concentrated in the direction of Bakhmut.

The National Antiterrorist Committee also spoke out, noting that the statements by Prigozhin had no basis and the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) initiated a criminal case for incitement to armed rebellion. It stated: “We demand that unlawful actions be stopped.”  

The Russian president’s press secretary reported that Vladimir Putin had been informed about all of Prigozhin’s actions and “necessary measures” were being taken.

Then the channel repeated information from the first special report, which claimed that the only video showing the aftermath of the attack on the Wagner camps was fake.

Prigozhin Vows to Restore Justice

Then, Prigozhin announced that he was marching to Moscow to “restore justice.”

Road Closures, Military Activity

Meanwhile, Google Maps showed road closures from Rostov-on-Don.

In a statement at 2043 EDT on 23 June, Prigozhin wrote: “A helicopter just opened fire on the columns and was shot down.”

Telegram channels reported that the military has blocked access to the city.

Right after addresses from Prigozhin and generals of the Russian Army, the National Guard of Russia began to mobilize and strengthen positions around strategically important objects in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities. Military equipment appeared on the streets.

Then an air raid alert was declared in across Ukraine.

Videos also emerged of the alleged Wagner column moving toward Rostov.

There are also reports of explosions over Belgorod. According to Telegram channels, Ukrainian drones were shot down.

Alexander Dugin, described as Putin’s ideologist and who previously supported Yevgeny Prigozhin, spoke out against civil war in his Telegram channel. He wrote: “As soon as we come face to face with the real enemy, the satanic West, it immediately sows discord within us.” He also shared a message from Konstantin Malofeev, owner of the Tsargrad channel, who called for not picking up arms against “ brothers, as there is nothing more terrible for the state than a civil war.”

Source: https://t.me/Agdchan/10731

Other pro-Russian channels repeated the rhetoric of the country’s official representatives, saying that all recordings from Prigozhin were fake.

However, most of the pro-Putin propagandists remained silent and did not issue anything about the ongoing situation.

Pro-Russian state media posted videos confirming that everything was calm in Moscow and no one was paying attention to Prigozhin.

As of 2230 EDT, more road closures were seen inside the city.

Source: Google Maps

According to the observations of Telegram users, armed people began to appear around the military headquarters. Several videos showed the military activity around the military board in Rostov.

Telegram and Twitter users claimed that soldiers did not wear identification marks and questioned whether it was really Wagner. In this context, a local Rostov newspaper stated on 23 June that orders were made to take the headquarters under special protection. The same newspaper stated later that day that the headquarters was surrounded by unknown armed men without identification marks.

TASS news agency published photos of the headquarters with the caption that people in military uniform are Wagner group fighters. According to the same source, there were Wagner group and Ministry of Defense staff present at the same time.

Situation in Voronezh

The M-4 road to Moscow was full of checkpoints.

 Social media users shared a video of a Russian-speaking woman in which she asserted that the fighters were from Wagner group.

She stated: “Here is a column of Wagnerites in the center of Rostov. I just talked to the fighters. They confirmed. They said they were visiting. I asked – from Wagner? And he did like this (nods her head).”

Moscow Mayor Sobyanin stated that anti-terrorist measures were being taken in the capital to strengthen security measures. The statement was posted at 0600 local time.

The center of the city of Rostov-on-Don was cordoned off.

At 0042 EDT on 24 June, Prigozhin himself posted a video from Rostov headquarters, summarizing the situation of the previous night: “We are at headquarters, 0730 am, under control: military objects of Rostov, including an airfield, planes that leave for combat work leave regularly. There are no problems, sanitary planes leave, there are no problems. Everything that is done, we have taken under control so that aviation does not strike us, but strikes the Ukrainians. The main control headquarters, the main control point, is working as usual. There are no problems, no officer is detached. Therefore, when they tell you that the Wagner group interfered with the work and therefore something collapsed on the front, something collapsed on the front not because of that. When we came here, we confirmed a lot of things again – a huge amount of territory has been lost, soldiers have been killed 3-4 times more than what is presented in the documents upstairs, and what is presented is 10 times less than what they say on television. Sanitary losses per day reach up to 1,000 people on certain days. These are killed, missing, wounded, and so on, the so-called refuseniks who refuse not because they have chickened out, but because they have no way out – there is no ammunition, no control. The chief of the general staff ran away from here as soon as he learned that we were approaching the building.”

Previously, videos of a conversation between Prigozhin and Yunus-bek Yevkurov, Deputy Minister of Defense, and Vladimir Alexeyev, who had previously recorded an appeal to Prigozhin, appeared on Telegram channels. During the conversation, Prigozhin declared that Wagner group wanted Defense Minister Shoigu and the Chief of the General Staff, to which Alexeev responded about the Chief of the General Staff, “take him,” waving his hand in a playful manner. “Until they are here,” Prigozhin continued, “we are here, blocking the city of Rostov and moving toward Moscow.”

Source: https://t.me/astrapress/30636

Immediately after the publication of the appeal and the video conversation, Rosgvardiya and OMON entered the Wagner Center in St. Petersburg. There was also activity around businesses associated with Prigozhin in Moscow.

At 10 am local time on 24^th June, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a special address in which he appealed to the citizens of Russia, the personnel of the Armed Forces, law enforcement agencies and special services, and fighters and commanders fighting in against the aggression of the neo-Nazis. He also appealed to those who “were deceived into a criminal adventure, pushed onto the path of a grave crime of a military rebellion.” He noted that Russia was waging a hard struggle for the life and security of citizens, for the right to be and remain Russia, against which the entire military, economic, and information machine of the West is directed. He stated that Wagner’s actions are a stab in the back of the country and the people.

Putin then talked about how a similar situation happened in 1917, when the country was fighting in World War I, but victory was “stolen” from it. This rhetoric almost word for word repeated the statement of Konstantin Malofeev (Russian businessman, ultraconservative, owner of the Tsargrad TV channel) the message of which appeared at the beginning of the uprising in the Telegram channel of so-called Putin’s ideologist Alexandr Dugin.

Source: https://t.me/Agdchan/10730

“We were supposed to win the First World War also. But on the eve of the spring offensive of 1917, a military coup took place in Russia.” The statement added: “During the events that followed the February coup, among other things, an ‘independent’ Ukraine was created to the misfortune of the Russian people.” The statement continued: “For the state and people there is nothing worse than turmoil and civil war. No external enemy will cause such harm to the Motherland.”

Putin continued that he would not let this happen again. He focused on the idea that any internal unrest is a deadly threat to the statehood of Russia and that actions to protect it will be tough. He stated that everyone who raised weapons against his comrades-in-arms would be held accountable.

After Putin’s speech, alleged “anti-terrorist operations” began in a number of Russian cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, and cities along Wagner’s route, with fortified entrances to the city and heightened security measures.

Meanwhile, the Wagner convoy continued on its way to Moscow. Prigozhin’s statement #1847 appeared in his Telegram channel, claiming that Putin was wrong that Prigozhin and his fighters betrayed the motherland. He continued that they are the real patriots of their country and none of them were going to turn themselves in at the request of Putin or the FSB as they did not want the country to continue to live in corruption, deceit, and bureaucracy.

At this time, fighters of the Chechen Akhmat battalion started their way to Rostov to confront Wagner’s fighters. Police officers went to the commercial facilities associated with Prigozhin to conduct searches. They found cash, fake documents, gold bars, and briquettes with unspecified contents. Prigozhin confirmed that he had the cash and stated that it was money to compensate the Wagner fighters.

Source:https://t.me/astrapress/30942

Text: “At the office of PMC ‘Wagner,’ the fake passports, golden bars, dollar packs, and white powder were found,” Fontanka [Internet-newspaper of Saint-Petersburg] stated. Later, the article was deleted from both the website and Telegram channel of the news outlet.

In Moscow, banners advertising Wagner were removed, and the biggest Russian online marketplace “Wildberries” delisted products with the logo of the PMCs. The most popular social network Vkontakte blocked the official group of PMCs Wagner.

Text: “The community was blocked at the request of Roskomnadzor [Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media] because it was included in the Registry of Banned Resources.

Moderator’s comment: “This material was blocked at the request of Roskomnadzor on the basis of a decision by the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation #27-31-2023/Treb431-23, dated 24 June 2023.”

Then, news broke that President Lukashenko of Belarus, in agreement with Putin, held talks with Prigozhin. After this, Prigozhin published a statement saying that the PMCs were 200 kilometers away from Moscow and that “the March of Justice had not spilled a drop of blood of his soldiers before that. However, now is the moment when blood may spill,” to which Prigozhin decided to turn his soldiers and return back to the field camps.

As of 25 June, the statement drew much more reaction from Prigozhin’s channel audience than previous statements.

Source:https://t.me/concordgroup_official/1303

Source:https://t.me/concordgroup_official

By that time, details of the agreements under discussion became public. Prigozhin was offered to “go to Belarus” and all charges against him and the Wagner fighters would be dropped. Prigozhin and his group left Rostov to the applause of the city population.

Source:https://t.me/c/1754252633/64106

Text: “Wagner PMC fighters in Rostov are loading into cars and preparing to leave the city, to the cheering shouts of the crowd.”

The online marketplace put back the Wagner products.

Text: “Wagner PMC merchandise is returning to Wildberries.” Source:https://t.me/c/1754252633/64104

According to state media, Prigozhin’s pardon was guaranteed by the “word of the president,” who in his recent address promised to deal harshly with those who stabbed Russia in the back.

Text: “The guarantee that Prigozhin will be able to leave for Belarus is the word of the president of Russia, the Kremlin said.”

Source: https://t.me/rian_ru/206947

Wagner-affiliated Telegram channels publish photos from the withdrawal from Rostov and praise for Wagner’s fighters. Cities canceled the regime of Counter Terrorist operation. As of 25 June, Telegram channel “Prigozhin’s press office” remained inactive.