Zelensky considers the rebellion of the Wagner group as proof of “Russia’s weakness”

Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyhe said this Saturday that the rebellion of the mercenary group Wagner against the army and the Russian authorities shows Russian “weakness” and the self-destructive move the country would take if it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Russia’s weakness is evident”Zelensky said in his first public reaction to the events in the neighboring country. “The longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain and problems it will create for itself,” the Ukrainian head of state added.

Zelenski accused Russian President Vladimir Putin, without mentioning him by name, for “choose the path of evil” and “self-destruction” in the process.

“He sends columns of soldiers to destroy lives in other countries and cannot prevent them from escaping and betraying him when they encounter resistance,” Zelenskiy wrote in his note posted on Telegram.

“He despises the people and sends hundreds of thousands to war only to end up hiding at a barricade near Moscow from those he himself armed,” Zelensky said, referring to Wagner’s group, which is carrying out its insurgency after gaining power thanks to his leading role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

According to Putin’s speech on the rebellion, in which he compared Wagner’s attempt to the Bolshevik revolution which shook Russia in 1917 when it was fighting in the First World War, Zelensky said that the current course of the Russian Federation can only lead to a horizon similar to that of that time.

“We preserve our strength, our unity,” Zelenski concluded his message. “All our commanders and all our soldiers know what they have to do,” said the Ukrainian president.

Ukraine celebrates outbreak of civil war in Russia as “sign of Putin’s collapse”

Intelligence and security services of Ukraine They spoke about the Wagner group’s rebellion in Russia this Saturday morning, celebrating the start of the country’s civil war as an important step toward the end of Russia’s invasion of its territory and the downfall of President Vladimir Putin.

“Ukraine’s formula for sustainable peace envisages leaving the 1991 borders and beginning the process of Russia’s self-destruction,” he wrote on his Twitter. Oleksi Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, speaking about the year Ukraine gained independence with borders violated by Russia since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Ukraine’s formula for a sustainable peace envisages a return to the borders of 1991 and the initiation of the process of Russia’s self-destruction. As the war began, so it will end – inside Russia.
The process has started… pic.twitter.com/tRa1UkZtpY

— Oleksiy Danilov (@OleksiyDanilov) June 24, 2023

Danilov added that “the war will end as it began: within the Russian Federation.” And he added: “The process has started”.

Ukrainian military intelligence service

In an interview with the Ukrainian media RBK, the representative of the Ukrainian military intelligence service (GUR) Andri Yusov said that the events taking place since Friday in Russia are an “internal conflict” and a “confrontation”.

According to Yusov, one of the permanent spokespersons of GUR, Wagner’s rebellion is a “direct consequence” of the Russian invasion of Ukrainein which a group of mercenaries from the uprising of Yevgeny Prigozhin gained capital importance for their leadership in operations such as the capture of Bakhmut.

Yusov said the GUR was closely monitoring events in Russia, but many conflict observers say Ukrainian military intelligence has been in contact with Prigozhin in recent months and would have fueled tensions between Russian military structures that precipitated Wagner’s rebellion.

Russian paramilitaries in favor of Kiev

They also spoke about crisis of two groups of Russian volunteers who have fought Putin’s forces alongside the Ukrainian military and staged several Kiev-sponsored armed incursions into Russia in recent months.

Commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, Denis Kapustinsaid about Prigozhin that he went from being “Putin’s dark chef” – because of the catering business with the state with which he did business – to “independent political figure”.

“I think that, although we are on different sides of the barricades and have different ideas about the future of the Russian Federation, I can say about him without sarcasm and irony that he is a patriot of Russia,” said Kapustin, who is known for declaring himself Slavic. suprematism and accuses his enemy Putin of selling the country to non-Russian peoples.

Also on Telegram, another group involved in anti-Putin raids, the Freedom Legion for Russia, said Prigozhin was their “enemy,” but he’s right when condemns the “corruption” and “hypocrisy” of the “dictatorship” that exists in Russia.

“We hope that the war of evil against evil will weaken the repressive machinery; we will liberate Russia with our brothers,” reads the statement of the Legion, which calls on the Russian armed forces to “point their weapons at the Kremlin towers” and demands that “the cruel and senseless killing of Ukrainians” and Russians sent to the front be stopped.

An opportunity for Ukraine

Possible mobilization of Wagner’s troops to support his boss’s uprisingand the potential transfer of Russian regular soldiers to the territory of the Russian Federation to suppress the rebellion, could weaken Russian defense lines in occupied Ukraine and give Kiev an opportunity to strike.

Millions of Ukrainians are watching the events unfolding in Russia with great anticipation and hope that the chaos in the invaded country will turn into a Russian disaster on the front lines that will end months of bombing and suffering.