President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on the Wagner PMC riot in Russia
Zelensky reacted to the conflict between the head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the Russian Ministry of Defence, which escalated into an armed rebellion inside Russia.
He published his comment in his Telegram
"Anyone who chooses the path of evil destroys himself. Sends columns of military to destroy the life of another country - and cannot keep them from running away and betraying when life resists," Zelensky wrote.
According to the president, the Kremlin has long "masked its weakness and stupidity of its rule with propaganda," and now the moment has come when there is too much "chaos" and lies will not help, and "one person" is to blame.
"Russia's weakness is obvious. It is a full-scale weakness. And the longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain and problems it will create for itself. This is also obvious. Ukraine is capable of protecting Europe from the spread of Russian evil and chaos," Zelenskyy stressed.
As a reminder, on 23 June, the head of the Russian terrorist group Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, accused the Russian Ministry of Defence of striking the group's rear camps. He also announced a "March of Justice".
"There are 25,000 of us, and we are going to find out why there is a mess in the country. 25,000 are waiting in the tactical reserve, and the strategic reserve is the entire army and the entire country. Anyone who wants to join us, we need to end this shame," Prigozhin said.
In response, the Russian Ministry of Defence called Prigozhin's statement a provocation, and the Russian FSB opened a case against him under the article on armed rebellion.
On the morning of 24 June, the telegram channel «Prigozhin's press service» published a video in which the leader of the PMC Wagner announced the seizure of all military facilities in Rostov-on-Don, including airfields and headquarters of the Southern Military District.
Also, according to Reuters and the BBC, Prigozhin's men managed to seize all military facilities in Voronezh. At the same time, according to unconfirmed reports, several helicopters have already been shot down in Voronezh region as they attempted to attack Wagner PMC convoys.
According to British intelligence, Wagner units are moving north through the Voronezh region "almost certainly with the aim of reaching Moscow". Given the "limited evidence" of clashes between Wagner and Russian security forces, some Russian military personnel are submitting to PMC Wagner without resistance.