During his first public appearance and speech since the mutiny last month, Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin addressed crowds of Wagner fighters at their new base in Belarus, during which he pledged to back the Belarusian military in combat.
Prigozhin has reappeared, in an undated video purportedly shot near Mogilev, Belarus, where Wagner fighters are relocating post-mutiny. Hard to tell but sounds like him (video was released on his TG channel). "Welcome to hell!" he says mid-way through. pic.twitter.com/ZXa48vqydb
— Mike Eckel (@Mike_Eckel) July 19, 2023
“We have fought enough. We did a lot for Russia. What is going on now on the front is an embarrassment of which we do not need to be a part of,” Prigozhin said in a video posted to his personal Telegram.
“And we are waiting until the moment that we have full privacy of our program. Because of this, we have made a decision that we will remain in Belarus for some time.”
“During this time, I am certain of it, we will make the Belarusian army, the 2nd in the world. And if necessary, we will march after them. I want to ask everyone to pay max attention to how the Belarusians not only greet us as heroes but as brothers.”
“We will continue to get ready and prepare for new deployments to Africa when we are certain we will not be set up to in-fight amongst ourselves,” he added.
Prigozhin then turns it over to a man who he described as “the commander that gave us the name “Wagner”,” which is most likely Dmitry Valerievich Utkin (call sign “Wagner”), although it is hard to exactly tell in the video.
The man says “You have done much work. Because of what you all have done, the name “Wagner” is known by the whole world,” further stating that “This is not the end, this is just the beginning. The largest job in the world will begin soon!… welcome to hell!”
