In yet another spectacular rant, Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has reignited his ongoing feud with the Kremlin, saying Putin’s efforts to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine have completely backfired and achieved exactly the opposite.
In an interview with pro-Kremlin political strategist, Konstantin Dolgov, Prigozhin complained that Ukraine was now “a nation which everybody knows around the entire world” that resembled “Greeks during the era of Greece’s prosperity.”
“Ukraine has been legitimized,” he said. “Ukraine has become a country which is known absolutely everywhere.”
Speaking specifically about Putin’s stated intention at the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, to “demilitarize” Ukraine, Prigozhin became even more scathing, saying: “If at the start of the special operation they had 500 tanks, hypothetically speaking, now they have 5,000 tanks. If 20,000 men were able to fight, now it’s 400,000.
“How have we demilitarized it? It turns out we’ve done the opposite.
“F**k knows how, but we’ve militarized Ukraine.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin says that Russia’s objectives of "denazifying" and "demilitarising" Ukraine have failed miserably
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) May 24, 2023
"F*ck knows how, but we’ve militarised Ukraine!" pic.twitter.com/ZBIyo0Vd3A
Prigozhin’s wide-ranging interview covered a number of other topics with numerous parts worth highlighting:
His pessimistic view of the future of the war:
“The Ukrainians are given rockets, they are preparing troops, of course they will continue the offensive, try to counterattack. Perhaps the counteroffensive will be successful somewhere, they will restore the borders of 2014 and this can easily happen. They will attack the Crimea, they will try to blow up the Crimean bridge, cut off the supply lines. Therefore, we need to prepare for a hard war.”
His view of the Ukrainian army:
“Today PMC Wagner is the best army in the world. Of course, I must say out of correctness that the next one is the Russian army, but I think that the Ukrainians today are one of the strongest armies. They have a high level of organization, a high level of training, a high level of intelligence, they have various weapons. They work on any systems - Soviet, NATO - equally successfully. With them, everything goes for the sake of achieving the supreme goal, as we did in the Great Patriotic War.”
The future of Russia:
“Russia needs to live in the image of North Korea for a certain number of years, close all borders, stop being silly, take all its youths from abroad and work hard. Then we will come to some result.”
Prigozhin also said that around 10,000 prisoners he recruited to fight in Ukraine have been killed on the battlefield.
Last year, Prigozhin toured Russian prisons in a bid to convince inmates to fight with Wagner in Ukraine, in exchange for a promised amnesty upon their return should they survive.
Convicts are believed to have been used as cannon fodder in Ukraine, accounting for most of Wagner's losses in the pro-Western country.
"I took 50,000 prisoners of which around 20 percent were killed," Prigozhin said, adding a similar percentage were killed among those who had signed a contract with Wagner, but did not give a precise figure.
Prigozhin’s latest interview comes after he claimed the capture of Bakhmut after months of brutal fighting, insisting there were no Ukrainian troops left there at all.
“There is not a single Ukrainian soldier in Bakhmut as we have stopped taking prisoners,” he said in a post on Telegram earlier this week. “There are a huge number of corpses of Ukrainian soldiers.”
Kyiv has contested the claims and insists the fight for the ruined city is not over.
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Comments (13)
I mean what did he expect knowing the history out of his mind bonkers
The man is definitely shellshocked and in denial. I cannot predict the outcome, but II am impressed by the spirit and courage of Ukraine. It would be aa tallordder o cappturure and hold Crimea, but wee will see, a ew jF 16s would help a lot.
Slava Ukraini
Yah sure did
What are you up to you slimy troll. I hope Ukraine can surround you and blast you to hell.But you are not there . So a sniper would do they should place a bounty on your head maybe one of your mercy needs the cash.
He is right about some things but be like north Korea are you crazy. The end will be in the Ukrainians favor not Russia.
The world we now live in began with Desert Storm. I knew the night the bombing of Baghdad began in 1991 that Bush the Elder was opening the gates of hell, by re-introducing the old Tripartite Pact methodology of mass-scale militaristic power projection as a means of making foreign policy adjustments according to the preferences of ignorant bureaucrats and avaricious executives from their positions of safety and luxury, far from the fighting. I knew that very night that this was how the world would seek to manage its affairs in the coming millennium, because once the example had been set that overwhelming force was its own reward, as the preferred means for manipulating history, it became inevitable that these methods would be tried again and again and again. I was not wrong.
There is a difference between Desert Storm I and DS II. DS I's goal was liberating tiny Kuwait from Iraq's overwhelming war and occupation. It met its goal and left. DS II sought Iraq's fabled 'weapons of mass destruction' and regime change. DS I had merit, but DS II was wrong. Its goals were unfounded and illegal. There were no WMDs but regime change came.
The West isn't set on regime change in Russia. Putin can continue his kleptocracy if the Russian people let him. The war began on the promise of Ukraine's freedom, and I believe it will end there. The West will involve itself in Ukrainian rehabilitation and politics at Ukraine's pleasure.
Ukraine will be free, but the revanchist ideology will carry on. Putin's time is limited in any case. The West's tactics are weakening Russia enough to stop its revanchist campaigns using Ukrainian blood and Western treasure. The Russian people may allow Putin and his cronies to carry on, or fight for what they want Russia to be. I make no wagers. The Russian people seem willing to suffer heartburn from consuming the propaganda. I believe they won't admit it, but they know it is propaganda.
Ukraine will win and become a NATO member. It will become a great nation with a liberal democracy, or the habits of corruption and strong-man dictators will take it in the direction of Hungary and Turkiye. It's up to the Ukrainian people. Slava Ukraini!
I say this because, although I’m almost 70 years old, I spent 40 years as a Russian area specialist у військовій розвідці Сполучених Штатів проти Радянського Союзу, а потім Росії.. I know what’s happening just by watching news reports over the past six months. Here’s what happened, and Russia wouldn’t believe me even if they read this because they don’t believe it’s possible. Here’s the hint for anyone with a single day of study of military history. Overall this is the template of how Russia lost the Winter War (which they deny ever happened), and the most elegant deception operation in modern history. The past six months are based on the Battle of Thermopylae and the end will follow the true reason for how the US defeated the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge during World War Two. God has given Ukraine the privilege to be the representative of the world to каструвати російського ведмедя.
Prigozhin is correct about everything except one thing. He just accurately described the situation but was incorrect about who will win. The end will be a Ukrainian victory and it is now inevitable. Russia made its last and fatal mistake last week. Your own government told the truth that Бахмут is a mouse trap and Бахмут was the trap. Once combat starts any day now, I will be surprised if Russia lasts 5 days before every Russian in the occupied territories and Crimea are either dead or prisoners of war. Any Russian left in Ukraine when this starts will die. It’s over and Russia can’t do anything about it. Any day now, the only thing my beloved Ukrainian friends will hear will be слава україні, героям слава і далі слава богу, що війна закінчилась. Mark my words.
Um, no. You did not militarize Ukrain. You NATOized Ukraine. Thanks.
I actually think Yevgeny Prigozhin respects the UAF in his own way. But he doesn't seem to respect Putin anymore. The US could end this war in a matter of days simply by advising and giving the UAF all the necessary weaponry they need to win. Biden is soooooo afraid of a Russian nuclear escalation that he won't give them everything they need or even allow the UAF to attack Russia on its own soil. Biden has given into Putin's fear mongering.
How about we blanket Russia day after day with long-range precision missiles that will reach into the heartland of Russia and fly some F-16 sorties all over Moscow and win the war. Take the war to Russia! Take it close and personal to Putin. But first you all have to convince Biden, because he's scared.
Slava Ukraini!
Hope Lives Here: https://thoughtlife-god.webnode.page/
@ThoughtLife.God,
Sure Biden scare? He has the responsibility of preserving USA way of life, Putin against the wall may use Nukes, Russian people are totally brainwashed. Also remember every single bullet we provide to Ukraine is from the people’s taxes, so he has to do it in a careful way.
@USWarrior, yup handing out nukes like there candy. Plus amout of ammo needed for guns tanks armored vehicles isn't cheap plus air defence as well. I'm not American my nation is with you but Nato needs to do more keep the flow of ammo cause it's gonna take a lot.
@ThoughtLife.God,
Prigozhin has no idea of what an unleashed super power can do, he's living in a fairy tale world. Iraq with its fifth largest army in the world was shutdown and eliminated in 29 days with little to no loses. The only threat from Russia is a nuclear one, its conventional abilities are that of WWII, and Prigozhin's army dies at the rate of WWI soldiers rushing the trenches, he's a legend in his own mind.
Ukraine got militerized and nazificized on the morning of Februari 24th 2022 by fascist rasshist military nazis
gargamel, the evil pissard from wagner, the composer of death and destruction, is one of these fascist rasshist military nazis
Ukraine is since then very busy to expell these fascist rasshist nazi militaries from the lands of Ukraine
Prigozhin throws criminals in front of machine guns and artillery and claims it makes his forces strong. It just makes his forces expendible. Munitions come from the russian military, or not at all. That is not strength it is dependency and as his suppliers are weak and in disarray, so no amount of barbarity on his part can achieve success.
He is right that russia needs to close it's borders to indoctrinate and terrorise its population ifg it is to mount any future challenge beyond its borders in the future. That 'period' will need to be one or two generations - at least 50 years. By that time they will be as 'advanced' as Iran, N Korea or Syria is now. Or to put it another way, poor, degraded and irrelevant.
He has played his game to achive relevance in his country. Now he needs to recognised that his country is a failure and has no path to relevance until it steps back from the causes of its pariah status. He is as relevant as his country. He makes his country irrelevant. Get real.