The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, appeared on video for the first time since the failed June 24 mutiny against the Kremlin, suggesting that he has returned to Africa to make Russia “even bigger on all continents”. . “The Wagner group makes Russia even bigger on all continents and Africa even freer,” Prigozhin says in the recording, broadcast by Telegram channels close to the Russian militia.
In the video, Prigozhin does not explicitly say that he is in Africa, but appears in a landscape similar to the African savannah and claims that the temperature around him is 50 degrees. “Justice and happiness for the African peoples,” Wagner’s chief proclaims in the video message, in which he assures that his paramilitary group is the “nightmare” of the Islamic State, Al Qaeda “and other bandits.”
Prigozhin also announces that Wagner continues to hire “real heroes” and continues to “accomplish the assigned tasks.” Last July, the paramilitary company announced that it had stopped recruiting new fighters by no longer fighting in Ukraine.
However, Prigozhin assured that “when the Motherland requires it”, the ‘Wagnerites’, who until recently were the main Russian assault force in Ukraine, will once again create an “additional unit” to defend national interests. And meanwhile, he added that the group would continue its activities in Africa and Belarus, the country where it moved after the failed armed rebellion against the Kremlin last June.
