“Mercenaries nodded”: Putin talks about how the meeting with Prigozhin went

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According to his own statements, Russian President Vladimir Putin (70) offered the mercenaries of Wagner’s private army to continue fighting under his own command in Ukraine after their uprising against the military leadership. “Many nodded when I said that,” Putin described in the daily newspaper “Kommersant” a meeting in the Kremlin with mercenaries from the private army of Yevgeny Prigozhin (62). Prigozhin sat in the front and did not see it.

Prigozhin rejected the offer. “No, the men do not agree with such a decision,” Prigozhin said, according to Putin.

Months of fighting in Bakhmut

Wagner’s mercenaries fought alongside Moscow’s regular troops in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. She gained fame through the months-long battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. «The simple Wagner warriors fought honourably. The fact that they were involved in these events is a pity,” Putin said.

At the end of June, after an alleged attack by Russian troops on the Wagner camp, Prigozhin had the city of Rostov-on-Don occupied and sent military columns towards Moscow. Putin spoke of “betrayal” at the time. Shortly before Moscow, after negotiations with the Kremlin, with the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko acting as a mediator, Prigozhin ordered the withdrawal.

In “Kommersant”, Putin now indirectly admits that the Russian leadership in the war against Ukraine deliberately relied on an illegal organization. “We have no law on private military organizations. The group exists, but legally it does not exist,” said the Kremlin chief. (SDA/no)

Source: Blick