Prigozhin called Shoigu a “creature”, shot a video against the background of dead fighters

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder and sponsor of the private military company “Wagner”, recorded a video against the background of dozens of corpses of PMC fighters, accusing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov of their deaths. The clip was published by Prigozhin’s press service.

“These are the guys who died today, the blood is still fresh,” the founder of PMC “Wagner” says on the footage, breaking into a scream and pointing to the dead bodies stacked in a row. Further, he claims that the shortage of ammunition in the sub-unit PMC is 70%, and that if they were given at least the “norm”, the number of victims would be five times less. “They came here as volunteers and are dying for you to fatten up in your offices with mahogany,” summarizes Prigozhin, addressing, including in an obscene manner, Shoigu and Gerasimov, whom, among other things, he calls “animals.”

Earlier, Prigozhin had already announced that the fighters of PMC “Wagner” had a shortage of ammunition, which had been unsuccessfully trying to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for several months. The Ukrainian side claims that in these battles, the Russian army and PMC “Wagner” lose several hundred fighters a day, and sometimes up to a thousand. The Ministry of Defense of Russia does not provide data on losses. Yevgeny Prigozhin also does not specify the number of dead, but called the losses “large”.

• PMC “Wagner” is a Russian unofficial armed formation created by St. Petersburg businessman Evgeny Prigozhin, who is close to President Vladimir Putin. PMC mercenaries, among whom are prisoners recruited in colonies, take an active part in the war with Ukraine, as well as in ground operations in Syria and Africa. Company fighters are accused of committing numerous war crimes, including extrajudicial executions. Prigozhin does not deny this, although he does not admit it directly. In a number of countries PMC “Wagner” is recognized as a criminal and terrorist organization.
• Officially, according to Russian laws, PMC “Wagner” does not exist. In the reports of the Ministry of Defense, the mercenary units of this structure are called “volunteer assault squads”.