Russian President Vladimir Putin's condemnation of Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner Group chief's testy response could pave the way to "civil war" in Russia, former U.S. Commander Ben Hodges has told Newsweek.
Prigozhin said on Saturday that his Wagner Group of mercenaries had taken control of Russia's Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov-on-Don. They have also reportedly taken sites in Voronezh, further north, on the way to Moscow.
The U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Wagner troops are "almost certainly" trying to reach the Russian capital, where soldiers have reportedly set up machine gun positions on the outskirts.
Putin described the actions by Prigozhin and Wagner as "treason" and said those responsible "will be punished" and that "the armed forces have been given the necessary orders." Prigozhin hit back, saying in a video address that Putin was "deeply mistaken" and that "we are patriots of our motherland."
Hodges said that the president's order to direct the army and the state's security services to destroy Wagner, along with Prigozhin's response, "raises this to a much higher level of potential violence, perhaps even to a civil war.
"It remains to be seen if the army will actually follow those orders," he told Newsweek.
[4/5] Further Wagner units are moving north through Vorenezh Oblast, almost certainly aiming to get to Moscow. With very limited evidence of fighting between Wagner and Russian security forces, some have likely remained passive, acquiescing to Wagner.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 24, 2023
Voronezh Oblast Governor Aleksandr Gusev confirmed that a fuel tank at an oil depot was burning and videos on social media allegedly show Wagner forces near the M4 highway linking Voronezh with Moscow, which has been blocked off.
Meanwhile, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a Putin loyalist, backed the Russian leader and said that his fighters had been dispatched to "the zones of tension."
Hodges, a retired lieutenant general who was the commander of United States Army Europe, said that Wagner's seizure of Rostov and Voronezh "potentially gives them plenty of what's needed for a sustained fight."
"This could pick up momentum of course, depending on the really big question—what will the military do?" he told Newsweek. "Will they respond to Putin's orders, will they obey anything from (Russian) MoD or General Staff? Or will they either switch sides or stay on the sidelines?
"I imagine a lot of those soldiers currently deployed in Ukraine will be thinking long and hard about how enthusiastic they should be fighting against Ukrainians in a situation that must look increasingly clear to them that it is for a losing cause.
"This mutiny reveals the terrible state of the war for Russia," said Hodges. "It will soon be increasingly apparent to Russian civilians how badly things are really going; how many soldiers have actually been lost."
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June 24, 2023 at 09:21PM
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Prigozhin Mutiny Reveals 'Terrible State' of Russian War—U.S. General - Newsweek
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