Prigozhin called the losses of PMC “Wagner” and the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the battles for Bakhmut

Evgeny Prigozhin, in an interview with political scientist Konstantin Dolgov, spoke about the losses of the Wagner PMC in Bakhmut, and also said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are one of the strongest armies in the world … “after Wagner.”

Here are the main theses:

1. Prigozhin for the first time announced the losses of Wagner in the battles for Bakhmut: according to him, 10 thousand prisoners (out of 50 thousand recruited to PMCs) and 10 thousand full-time Wagner soldiers were killed. The losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, according to his version, were killed – 50 thousand.

Note that, according to Biden, Russia lost about 100 thousand people in Bakhmut (he did not specify the proportion of those killed and wounded). Ukraine, for its part, did not confirm huge losses, but many other sources reported about them. At the same time, many sources spoke about the exorbitant losses on the part of the “Wagnerites” (figures from 15 to 25 thousand were called). Noting that this is much higher than the level of losses in the regular army of the Russian Federation.

2. Prigozhin put the Ukrainian army above the Russian one.

“Today Ukrainians are one of the strongest armies. They have a high level of organization, training, intelligence,” Prigozhin said. But “Wagner”, in his opinion, “in first place in the world” in terms of efficiency.

3. Again demanded the resignation of Shoigu and Gerasimov. According to Prigozhin, the posts of Minister of Defense and Chief of the General Staff should be taken by Mezentsev and Surovikin.

4. The goals of the “special operation” announced by Putin in Ukraine failed, according to Prigozhin. “SVO” was made for the sake of denazification… And we have made Ukraine a nation that is known throughout the world. They are, like the Greeks or the Romans, in their prime. Now with regard to demilitarization. If at the beginning of the special operation they had conditionally 500 tanks, now they have five thousand of them. If then 20 thousand fighters skillfully fought, then now 400 thousand. How did we demilitarize it?”, – said the curator of “Wagner”.

5. Due to heavy losses in the army, as well as due to dissatisfaction with the behavior of the elite, Prigogine sees the possibility of a “new 1917”, civil war and revolution in the Russian Federation. Which the army will start, and the relatives of the dead will pick up.

6. Prigozhin described two scenarios for a further war. According to the “optimistic” one (Prigozhin does not believe in it), Europe and the United States will get tired of supporting Ukraine, negotiations will be held with the mediation of China, and Russia will retain the occupied territories. According to the “pessimistic” APU, they will receive missiles and equipment in the West, and continue to fight.

In order to prevent defeat, Prigogine calls for “stop building glass towers and fattening”, as well as transfer all production to military needs, announce additional waves of mobilization and fight on. At the same time, he did not explain how his intention to withdraw the Wagner PMC from the front line is consistent with everything said above about the difficult situation in the war for the Russian Federation and the need for new waves of mobilization. After all, this, of course, will sharply worsen the position of the Russian troops, since the command will have to look for reserves somewhere to plug the hole that has formed.

At the same time, as follows from the interview, Prigozhin is aware that there will be such a problem, and even admitted that Bakhmut would not be kept after that. He stated that if the regular army of the Russian Federation fails to control and keep Bakhmut, this will discredit the RF Armed Forces and make PMCs more combat-ready than regular troops. Moreover, in the event of the surrender of Bakhmut, Prigogine is hinting at a “revolution”. “Everything can end like in 1917,” first Russian soldiers may revolt, and then their relatives. Russia, according to Prigogine, you need martial law, new waves of mobilization and live a certain number of years “in the image of North Korea.” In this case, PMC “Wagner” will first go “within the law and in jackets with bloody hands” to the General Staff of the Russian Federation “to ask uncomfortable questions”, and then “will again go to save the Motherland.”

That is, it seems that Prigozhin’s plan in his fight against Shoigu is based on the fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will recapture Bakhmut from the Russian army, and then the leadership of the Ministry of Defense will inevitably be replaced. In other words, the curator of the PMC makes it clear that he deliberately creates problems for the Russian army on the eve of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

However, whether Prigozhin’s plan is being implemented, and whether he will actually withdraw Wagner PMC from the front, is an open question (in early May, for such intentions, he was threatened with charges of “treason,” and he did not go anywhere). Interestingly, in this interview, Prigogine again shifted the dates for the withdrawal of Wagner from Bakhmut. If earlier he spoke about May 25, then about June 1, now he has already announced that he intends to withdraw PMCs before June 10.

Source link