
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of private military contractor Wagner Group, said on Saturday his Wagner fighters had crossed the border into Russia from Ukraine and were prepared to go "all the way" against Moscow's military, hours after the Kremlin accused him of armed mutiny.
In an audio recording posted on Telegram, Prigozhin said that Wagner fighters had entered the southern Russian city of Rostov. He said he and his men would destroy anyone who stood in their way.
Without providing any evidence, Prigozhin had earlier said that Russia's military leadership had killed a huge number of his troops in an air strike and vowed to punish them, according to a Reuters report. He said his actions were not a military coup.
The report further stated that he appeared to suggest that his 25,000-strong militia was en route to oust the leadership of the defence ministry in Moscow.
All about Yevgeny Prigozhin: From ‘Putin’s chef’ to paramilitary leader
1. Prigozhin was convicted of robbery and assault in 1981 and sentenced to 12 years in prison. After his release, Prigozhin set up a chain of stalls selling hot dogs in St Petersburg. Eventually, he was able to open expensive restaurants in the city.
2. According to a report by BBC, it was there that he began mixing with the high and mighty of St Petersburg and then Russia. Vladimir Putin, after becoming the president reportedly started taking his foreign guests at one of his restaurants. Years later, Prigozhin's catering company Concord was contracted to supply food to the Kremlin, earning him the nickname "Putin's chef", the report said.
3. His transformation into a brutal warlord came in the aftermath of the 2014 Russian-backed separatist movements in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. Prigozhin founded Wagner to be a shadowy mercenary outfit that fought both in eastern Ukraine and, increasingly, for Russian-backed causes around the world, according to a CNN report.
4. Wagner has been accused of human rights abuses throughout Africa, including in the Central African Republic, Libya and Mali by Western countries and United Nations experts.
5. In Ukraine, Prigozhin’s mercenaries have become a major force in the war, fighting as counterparts to the Russian army in battles with Ukrainian forces. That includes Wagner fighters taking Bakhmut, the city where the bloodiest and longest battles have taken place.
6. The U.S. estimates that nearly half of the 20,000 Russian troops killed in Ukraine since December were Wagner fighters in Bakhmut. His soldiers-for-hire included inmates recruited from Russia’s prisons, according to a report by Associated Press.
7. As his forces fought and died en masse in Ukraine, Prigozhin raged against Russia’s military brass. In a video released by his team last month, Prigozhin stood next to rows bodies he said were those of Wagner fighters. He accused Russia’s regular military of incompetence and of starving his troops of the weapons and ammunition they needed to fight.
8. As Prigozhin grew more outspoken against the way Russia’s conventional military conducted fighting in Ukraine, he continued to play a seemingly indispensable role for the Russian offensive, and appeared to suffer no retaliation from Putin for his criticism of Putin’s generals.
On Saturday, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin during his public address on television warned that those dividing Russia will be punished. In his address, President Putin urged the consolidation of all forces and said what was happening was "a betrayal" and "a knife in the back of our people".
(With agencies inputs)