Head of Wagner paramilitary group rejects ‘treason’ accusation

ISTANBUL

The head of the Wagner paramilitary group on Saturday rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s accusation of "treason."

“Regarding the betrayal of the motherland, the president (Putin) was deeply mistaken. We are patriots of our Motherland. We fought and are fighting, all the fighters of PMC Wagner, and no one is going to turn themselves in at the request of the president, the FSB or anyone else,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message on Telegram.

Prigozhin further said that they will not turn themselves in because they do not want the country to “live on in corruption, in deceit and in bureaucracy.”

“When we fought in Africa, we were told that we need Africa … When we were told that we were at war with Ukraine, we went and fought. But it turned out that ammunition, weapons, all the money that was put on them are also stolen, and officials are saving them for themselves, just for the case that came today when someone goes to Moscow,” he said.

He later accused the Russian military of targeting concentrated areas with civilians, because “they can't hit (the target) and they hit anywhere.”

“Therefore, we are patriots, and those who oppose us today are those who have gathered around the scum,” he added.

Putin accused Prigozhin of treason in a national address on Saturday, after forces of the paramilitary group crossed the border from Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine into Russia, entering the city of Rostov-on-Don.

Prigozhin has, in recent months, repeatedly accused Russia of not supplying sufficient arms to the paramilitary group which has been fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine.