Russia’s most powerful mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin has said his Wagner fighters would not sign any contract with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, publicly refusing an attempt by the Defence Ministry to bring his fighting force under its sway.
Key points:
- Yevgeny Prigozhin says the Wagner group’s highly efficient command structure would be damaged by reporting to the defence minister
- Mr Prigozhin said the ministry might use the failure to comply with the order as a reason to deprive Wagner of supplies
- Russia says Ukraine attacked a Russian ship patrolling the Black Sea
The Defence Ministry on Saturday said Mr Shoigu had ordered all “volunteer detachments” to sign contracts with his ministry by the end of the month, a step it said would increase the effectiveness of the Russian army.
Though the ministry did not mention Wagner in its public statement, the Russian media reported that it was an attempt by Mr Shoigu to bring the mercenaries to heel.
“These measures will increase the combat capabilities and effectiveness of the armed forces and their volunteer detachments,” Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov said.
Mr Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner group, has repeatedly attacked President Vladimir Putin’s top military brass for what he casts as treachery for failing to fight the war in Ukraine properly.
Neither Mr Shoigu nor Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov have commented in public on the insults from Mr Prigozhin, whose forces in May took the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after a battle in which tens of thousands perished.
“Wagner will not sign any contracts with Shoigu,” Mr Prigozhin said in response to a request for comment on the matter.
The order, he said, did not apply to Wagner.
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The Defence Ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Mr Prigozhin said Wagner was completely subordinate to the interests of Russia but that its highly efficient command structure would be damaged by reporting to Mr Shoigu.
“Shoigu cannot properly manage military formations,” Mr Prigozhin said, adding that Wagner coordinated its actions in Ukraine with General Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon” by the Russian media.
Mr Prigozhin said the ministry might use the failure to comply with the order as a reason to deprive Wagner of supplies.
“What could happen after this order is that they will not give us weapons and ammunition. We will figure it out, as they say,” Mr Prigozhin said.
“But when the thunder breaks, they will come running and bring weapons and ammunition with a request to help.”
Russia says Ukraine attacks a Russian vessel patrolling Black Sea
Russia has claimed Ukraine made unsuccessful attempt to attack a Russian naval ship with six high-speed drone boats as the vessel patrolled major natural gas pipelines in the Black Sea.
The ship was carrying out what Russia’s Defence Ministry said was “monitoring of the situation and ensuring security along the routes of the TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipelines in the south-eastern part of the Black Sea”.
Ukraine attacked in the early hours of Sunday about 300 km south-east of Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, the Defence Ministry said.
Russia and Turkey formally launched TurkStream with capacity of 31.5 billion cubic metres per year in January 2020.
The pipeline, which allows Moscow to bypass Ukraine as a transit route to Europe, carries Russian natural gas to southern Europe through the Black Sea and Turkey.
The Blue Stream pipeline delivers Russian gas to Turkey.
Reuters