By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the armed insurrection launched by members of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group against the army is an indication of Russia’s inherent political instability.
“Russia’s weakness is obvious. Full-scale weakness. And the longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain, and problems it will have for itself later,” he said in statement on social media on Saturday.
“Ukraine is able to protect Europe from the spread of Russian evil and chaos,” Zelensky added.
Zelensky accused Putin of throwing “hundreds of thousands into the war, in order to eventually barricade himself in the Moscow region from those whom he himself armed.”
“For a long time, Russia used propaganda to mask its weakness and the stupidity of its government,” he added in the statement.
The Russian-Ukrainian war took an unexpected turn on Saturday after the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin which has played a prominent role in the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, called for a rebellion against Russia’s top military brass.
Wagner, which carried out much of the grunt work in the battle of Bakhmut, mutinied against high command and seized the city of Rostov in southwestern Russia, largely unopposed by local security forces.
The mutiny is the height of a long-running feud between Wagner boss Prigozhin and Russian military chiefs.
Prigozhin claims to have shot down three Russian helicopters, and that the armed forces have fired rockets on Wagner’s positions.
However, he said his men had been fired on by artillery and helicopters en route to Rostov.
He said he thought he had the support of the Russian people for what he calls his “march of justice.”
However, Russian President, Vladimir Putin had condemned the mutiny, saying a decisive action should be taken.
