Prigozhin unveils reasons for armed mutiny, its suspension

The Wagner group's financier made the statement to his press service.

He said that according to a new decree of the Russian government, the Wagner PMC had to sign an agreement with the Russian Defense Ministry by July 1, 2023, which would have effectively led to the group's disappearance. According to him, only 1-2% of the mercenaries agreed to the transition, while the rest refused to obey the Russian Defense Ministry.

“As a result of intrigue and ill-considered decisions, this unit was to cease to exist on July 1, 2023. A council of commanders gathered and conveyed this information to the soldiers. No one agreed to sign a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry because everyone understands that this would lead to a complete loss of combat capability. Experienced fighters and commanders will simply go to the meat market, where they will not be able to use their experience. All the fighters who decided they were ready to join the Defense Ministry have joined, but it is a minimal number, 1-2%,” Prigozhin said.

The Wagner PMC financier said that despite this, the group was preparing to “publicly hand over equipment near the headquarters of the special military operation in Rostov on June 30.” According to Prigozhin, the Wagner Group did not show aggression, but the Russian Defense Ministry launched a missile strike on the mercenaries' bases anyway.

“This was the trigger for the commanders to decide to move immediately,” he said. 

Prigozhin claims that the offensive stopped “at the moment when the first assault unit that came within 200 kilometers of Moscow deployed their artillery and it became clear that a lot of blood would be shed.”

“We realized that demonstrating what we were going to do was enough. The purpose of the campaign was to prevent the destruction of the Wagner PMC and to bring to justice those people who, due to their unprofessional actions, made a huge number of mistakes during the special military operation,” the financier said. 

He also named two main reasons for the end of the mutiny.

“The reasons why we decided to turn around were that we did not want to shed Russian blood. And secondly, we were going to protest, not to topple the government.”

Prigozhin claims that during the mutiny, several people were wounded among the Wagner soldiers. Also, according to him, there are 2 dead among those soldiers of the Ministry of Defense who joined the PMC of their own free will.

• On June 11, Sergei Shoigu signed a decree requiring all 'volunteer formations' to sign a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry - one of these formations was to be the Wagner PMC.

• On Friday, June 23, Russian troops allegedly launched a missile attack on the Wagner PMC base. Yevgeny Prigozhin said that 25,000 mercenaries were coming to deal with Sergei Shoigu. Read more about the events here.

• UK intelligence sources had previously reported that Russian intelligence services had threatened the families of the Wagner PMC leaders over the attack on Moscow, which could be the reason for Prigozhin's retreat.