By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The leader of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin spoke on Wednesday for the first time after the Moscow botched mutiny where he vowed that his troops will not go back to fight in Ukraine, but will instead remain in Belarus to train local troops.
He told his troops to get prepared, hinting that they could later go to Africa, where Wagner has been active in Mali and the Central African Republic.
In a shaky mobile phone video shot at night, Prigozhin can be seen in silhouette wearing a baseball cap.
He was speaking to a crowd of men believed to be his Wagner fighters and break repeatedly into applause and cheers.
“We did a lot for Russia. What is happening at the front now is a disgrace. We want no part of it,” Prigozhin said.
“Therefore we have taken the decision to be in Belarus for a while. In this time, we will turn the Belarusian army into the second most powerful in the world and, if needed, we will take its place,” Prigozhin pursued, in a jab at Russia, which currently has the second largest army in the world.
Prigozhin’s deputy, Dmitry Utkin, whose nom de guerre gave the mercenary army its name, speaks: “This is not the end. This is the beginning. The biggest task in the world will begin very soon,” he said before switching to English: “Welcome to hell.”
After months of tension with Russia’s military leadership, Prigozhin turned his troops against the Russian authorities last month.
He led his men deep into Russian territory, taking the southwestern city of Rostov-on-Don and only stopping a few dozen kilometers from Moscow.
The mutinous warlord then went off the grid after he struck a deal with the Kremlin and Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko under which Wagner fighters would be spared prosecution in Russia, while he and his men would go in exile in Belarus.
He resurfaced a few days later, posting a voice message on social media to thank the supporters of the aborted uprising while signalling that his host country had offered options for his troops to continue operating from Belarus.
