Be serious or you could face revolution, Wagner chief warns Russian elite

Members of the Wagner group waving the Russian national flag over Bakhmut Photo: AFP

Russia could face a revolution if the country's elite does not become serious about war and stop resting, warned the head of the Wagner mercenary group.

Evgeny Prigozhin warned that if ordinary Russians continue to return their children to zinc coffins while the elite «shake them … in the sun» , she will lose the war and face turmoil not seen since the revolutions of 1917, when Russia overthrew the tsar and civil war broke out.

Mr. Progozhin said in an interview uploaded to Telegram on Tuesday evening: “This split may end, as in 1917, with a revolution – first the soldiers will rise, and then their loved ones will rise.”

&#34 There are already tens of thousands of them — relatives of those killed. And there will probably be hundreds of thousands of them – we can’t avoid it.”

The increasingly outspoken Wagner chief said Ukraine was preparing a counteroffensive to push Russian troops back to its borders before the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, trying to surround Bakhmut and attack the Crimea.

"We are in such a state that we can fucking lose Russia — this is the main problem… We need to introduce martial law"

Mr. Prigozhin also claimed that every fifth prisoner, whom he recruited from Russian prisons to join his mercenaries, was killed in Ukraine. The number is estimated to be around 10,000.

The prisoners were told they could fight in the war in Ukraine in exchange for a promised amnesty upon their return if they survived.

“I took 50,000 prisoners, of whom about 20 percent were killed,” he said, adding that the same percentage of those who signed a contract with Wagner died. Acting head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said that Bakhmut would be known by his former Soviet name Artemovsk.

Denis Pushilin posted a video on Telegram in military uniform, allegedly hoisting the flag of the Donetsk People's Republic on the building.

< p>He said: “Bakhmut had the misfortune of being a Ukrainian. Now it's not Ukraine, it's Russia. And it's not Bakhmut, it's Artemivsk.»

In a social media post on Tuesday afternoon, he wrote: «The Russian flag had already been raised over Artemivsk earlier, today I went to the liberated city to fly the flag of the Donetsk People's Republic , and once again examine the settlement to work out priority measures.”

He added: “Thanks to the Wagner fighters for completing the most difficult combat mission in the entrusted region! Now we will restore the Russian city of Artemovsk again.”