"he has just spoken"
[Wagner group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin
has shared an audio statement directly addressing
the mutiny in Russia over the weekend.
In the 11-minute clip, he said:
"We started our march
because of an injustice."
He claimed the decision to turn around the
march on Moscow was because he and
his fighters didn't want to shed Russian blood.
The former Wagner leader also said it was not
his aim to overthrow the Russian government.
"We stopped at the moment when the first
assault unit, which had approached 200km to Moscow,
deployed its artillery, made a reconnaissance
of the area," he said.
"It was obvious that a lot of blood would
be spilled at this point.
So we felt that the demonstration of what
we were going to do was enough.
"And our decision to turn back was influenced by
two most important factors.
The first factor was that we did not want to
shed Russian blood.
"The second factor was that we were going for
a demonstration of our protest,
not to overthrow the government in the country."
The Wagner leader also repeated his
claim that his troops were attacked by
Russian soldiers, saying 30 people died
with more injured.
Prigozhin added that Belarusian President
Alexander Lukashenko
"extended his hand and offered to find
solutions for the further operation of
Wagner in a legitimate jurisdiction".
But he did not offer any details about where
he was or what his future plans are.]
https://news.sky.com/story/russia-uk...dates-12541713