Prigozhin appeals for public support as Wagner continues recruiting

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Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin called on the Russian public to stand up for his Wagner paramilitaries on Monday as the group continued to recruit troops for the war in Ukraine, in apparent contradiction of the terms of a truce with the Kremlin.

Speaking on the Telegram messaging app for the second time since leading an aborted insurrection last month, Prigozhin said “we need your support more than ever”, as he thanked backers inside Russia.

Also on Monday Wagner was actively seeking recruits to train in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, according to the group’s ads on Telegram.

The moves come in spite of an agreement, whose details were revealed by Russian president Vladimir Putin, by which Wagner fighters were supposed to choose between signing contracts with the Russian defence ministry, going home or following Prigozhin into exile in Belarus.

However, Prigozhin stopped short of criticising the Kremlin directly.

A Wagner recruiter contacted on the group’s hotline on Monday said various “job openings” were available, including in the “prestigious” storm unit fighting in “the zone of the special military operation” — a reference to the war in Ukraine. Training would last for three weeks in the village of Molkino in southern Russia before deployment, the recruiter said.

Those who want to join Wagner were told to delete all social media accounts because the recruitment process had “become more complicated”, the Wagner official said.

Asked what the next steps were, the recruiter suggested no disruption had occurred after the attempted insurrection: “Why do you believe the news? If something was not right, we would not be having this conversation right now.”

He added that a recruit would sign a contract with Wagner, not the Russian defence ministry. “We have nothing to do with them. Have you seen the statements of Evgeny Viktorovich [Prigozhin]? We will not sign any contracts with them.”

Prigozhin was careful not to challenge the Kremlin explicitly in his voice message on Monday, while he defended his “march of justice” towards Moscow last month as an effort to fight traitors and “mobilise our society”. “Soon you will see our next victories at the front,” he added.

He continued to remain silent on his own whereabouts. President Alexander Lukashenko said last week that Prigozhin had flown to Belarus, following the deal the Belarus leader had brokered.

But the warlord’s plane has since flown several times from Belarus to Moscow and St Petersburg and back again, Flightradar24 data shows, raising questions over whether Prigozhin is sticking to the terms of the deal.

In a speech delivered to his generals last Tuesday, Lukashenko said Belarus had earmarked “an abandoned base” on which to station Wagner troops.

On Monday evening, a Telegram channel considered close to Wagner published several photos of the “Wagner base facility construction in Osipovichi”, a town about 100km south-east of Minsk, showing several rows of military tents with wooden bunks.

However, no evidence or reporting to date has emerged of any mass relocation of militia fighters to Belarus.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, Prigozhin’s rival, who had not spoken of the Wagner mutiny before, also reappeared on Monday.

“The [coup] plans failed because members of the armed forces remained faithful to their oath and military duty,” Shoigu said at a meeting with army generals.

Valery Gerasimov, commander of Russia’s invasion force and Prigozhin’s other main opponent, has not been seen in public since the mutiny attempt.

Nor has army general Sergey Surovikin, former commander of the Ukrainian war operations who is known to have had a good relationship with Prigozhin. Surovikin is believed to be detained, as the Kremlin cracks down on Wagner sympathisers.