Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin has vowed retaliation after accusing Russian military forces of attacking Wagner positions near Bakhmut, which reportedly resulted in heavy casualties.

Channels of the #Wagner PMC state that the #Russian army launched a missile attack on the location of the Wagner mercenaries. pic.twitter.com/GsAnfmuCJs

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 23, 2023

In a statement posted to his Telegram channel, Prigozhin claimed that “Russian MoD carried out a missile strike at Wagner rear camps, Adding that a “huge number of Wagner fighters have died.” This was posted alongside footage allegedly showing the aftermath of the strike. Prigozhin stated that “we will decide how to respond to this evildoing. The next step is ours.”

In another audio statement posted to his channel, Prigozhin says that “PMC Wagner Commanders’ Council made a decision: the evil brought by the military leadership of the country must be stopped. They neglect the lives of soldiers. They forgot the word “justice”, and we will bring it back.”

“Those, who destroyed today our guys, who destroyed tens, tens of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers will be punished. I’m asking: no one resist. Everyone who will try to resist, we will consider them a danger and destroy them immediately, including any checkpoints on our way. And any aviation that we see above our heads.”

“I’m asking everyone to remain calm, do not succumb to provocations, and remain in their houses. Ideally, those along our way, do not go outside. After we finished what we started, we will return to the frontline to protect our motherland.”

“Presidential authority, Government, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosgvardia, and other departments will continue operating as before. We will deal with those who destroy Russian soldiers. And we will return to the frontline. Justice in the Army will be restored. And after this, justice for the whole of Russia,” he concluded.

Prigozhin claims that "Russian MoD carried out a missile strike at Wagner rear camps".

Evgeniy Prigozhin published an audio message claiming that a "huge number of Wagner fighters have died" in the "missile strike" and that the "next step belongs to Wagner".

Shortly before… pic.twitter.com/fsX4wTm75B

— Dmitri (@wartranslated) June 23, 2023

Afterwards he released two other audio messages, which said that:

“Shoygu just cowardly ran from Rostov. At 21:00, he RAN, cowardly, like a woman to avoid explaining why he raised helicopters to destroy our lads, why we dealt the missile strikes. This scum will be stopped.”

“There are 25 thousand of us and we are going to figure out why this chaos is happening in the country. 25 thousand is a tactical reserve, but the strategic reserve is our whole army and the whole country. Everyone who wants, join us. We must end this disgrace.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense has denied any involvement, releasing a statement saying that “All messages and video frames distributed on social networks on behalf of E. Prigozhin about allegedly “delivering a strike by the RF Ministry of Defense on the rear camps of PMC Wagner” do not correspond to reality and are an informational provocation.

It added that “The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to perform combat missions on the line of contact with the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of the special military operation.”

This comes amid months of increased tensions between Wagner and the Russian military. Previously, Prigozhin threatened to withdraw from Bakhmut due to lack of supplies and has regularly accused Russian forces of attacking Wagner PMCs in the area.

Massive thanks to War Translated for making this much easier to translate.