The head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has pronounced his first words after the end of the rebellion against the Russian military leadership last Saturday. Through a message on his Telegram account, Prigozhin has defended that his goal it was not “overthrow power” in Russia.

“The goal of the march was to avoid the disappearance of Wagner“, he confesses. These words come 48 hours after the Kremlin announced that Prigozhin was leaving for Belarusas well as that no criminal charges would be filed against any Wagner members.

“The criminal case against Prigozhin he is going to retire and go to Belarus“, said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dimitr Peskov. “The time has come when blood can be shed. Therefore, understanding full responsibility for Russian blood being spilled by one of the parties, our columns turn around and return to our bases according to plan,” Prigozhin shared in an audio message on his Telegram channel, his latest words so far.

Now Prigozhin repeats his claim that Wagner was the fighting force most effective in Russia “and even in the world”embarrassing even the units that Moscow had sent into Ukraine to take Rostov in February 2022.

“We gave a master classas it should have been on February 24, 2022. We did not have the objective of overthrowing the existing regime and the legally elected government,” he defends.

Prigozhin accuses the Russian army of having attacked a Wagner camp with missiles and helicopters, killing some 1,000 of his men, which he places as the immediate trigger for what he called a “justice march“.