The chief of the Wagner private military group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on Friday accused Russian military leadership of striking a Wagner military camp and killing a "huge amount" of his mercenary forces.
Prigozhin claimed that the Russian Ministry of Defense tricked Wagner and he vowed to "respond to these atrocities."
"They sneakily deceived us, trying to deprive us of the opportunity to defend our homes and instead hunt down Wagner PMC. We were ready to compromise with the Ministry of Defense to hand over our weapons and find a solution how we will continue to defend our country. But these scumbags did not calm down," Prigozhin said in a voice note posted on Telegram.
"They saw that we weren't broken and they launched strikes on our camps. A huge amount of our fighters were killed, our comrades in arms. We will make a decision about how to respond to these atrocities. The next step is ours," he continued, alleging that "they wiped out dozens."
Russia's Ministry of Defense denied the allegation in a Telegram post Friday, calling the messages and videos spreading on social networks on behalf of Prigozhin about the event "untrue" and "an informational provocation."
Prigozhin claimed that the "evil that is being carried out" by Russia's military leadership "must be stopped" following the alleged attack. "They disregard the lives of soldiers, they have forgotten the word 'justice,'" Prigozhin said in the voice recording.
"The details started to appear; Minister of Defense arrived to Rostov especially to conduct an operation to destroy Wagner PMC. He used artillerymen and helicopter pilots undercover to destroy us," Prigozhin added.
Prigozhin vows retaliation: "Many dozens, tens of thousands of lives, of Russian soldiers will be punished," Prigozhin said. "I ask that nobody put up any resistance. Those who show such resistance, we will consider it a threat and destroy them immediately. This includes any roadblocks standing in our way, any aircraft seen over our heads."
He asked people to stay at home and "remain calm, not to be provoked."
In a later Telegram post, Prigozhin said that by criticizing Russian military leadership, he is carrying out a "march of justice" and not a "military coup," alleging that a majority of Russian service members support Wagner.
"Finally, you will make them supply us with ammunition and make them stop using us as cannon fodder," Prigozhin added.
More background: Earlier on Friday, Prigozhin furthered his ongoing dispute with military leaders in a highly critical video interview where he said Moscow invaded Ukraine under false pretenses devised by the Russian Ministry of Defense, and that Russia is actually losing ground on the battlefield.
And earlier this month, the Wagner boss said he won't sign contracts with Russia’s defense ministry, rejecting an attempt to bring his force in line. His comments came after an announcement by the Russian Ministry of Defense that “volunteer units” and private military groups would be required to sign a contract with the ministry.
Prigozhin and Wagner have played a prominent role in the Ukraine war. In May he said his troops had capture Bakhmut in a costly and largely symbolic gain for Russia.
The Wagner chief has previously criticized Russia’s traditional military hierarchy, blaming Russian defense chiefs for “tens of thousands” of casualties and stating that divisions could end in a “revolution.”
He also accused Russian military leaders “sit like fat cats” in “luxury offices,” while his fighters are “dying,” and later accused the Russian Defense Ministry of trying to sabotage his troops’ withdrawal from Bakhmut, claiming the ministry laid mines along the exit routes.
CNN's Katharina Krebs, Lindsay Isaac, Uliana Pavlova, Radina Gigova, Josh Pennington contributed reporting to this post.
