Prigogine, head of ‘Wagner’, told Zelensky, “Let’s ride a fighter and fight”

Sitting in the cockpit of a Sukhoi attack plane and offering dogfights… Wagner Group Propaganda

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Yoo Cheol-jong = The head of the Russian private mercenary group ‘Wagner’, which is at the forefront of the war in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin, challenged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to take part in aerial combat in a fighter jet.

According to the Rianovosti news agency, Prigogine made this suggestion through a video uploaded by his public affairs office on the Telegram channel on the 6th (local time).

In a video of him wearing an air force uniform at night and sitting in the cockpit of a Su-24 attack plane and moving on the runway, he said, “Vladimir Sanich (Russian name for Volodymyr Zelensky), bombed Bakhmut and returned. Tomorrow I trying to ride a MiG-29 fighter,” he said.

“If you want, let’s meet in the air,” he said, suggesting a dogfight and saying, “If you win, take Artyomovsk (Russian name for Bahmut), otherwise (our troops) advance to the Dnieper (river) “It presents absurd conditions.

Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province, which is still under Ukrainian military control, is a transit hub providing supplies to Ukrainian forces fighting in the Donbas region (Donetsk and Luhansk regions).

Here, Russian and Ukrainian forces, led by fighters from the Wagner Group, engage in fierce battles, resulting in numerous casualties on both sides.

Denis Pushilin, head of the pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), established in Donetsk Oblast, claimed that Russian forces, including fighters from Wagner, were launching a successful offensive, saying they had established positions on the northern and eastern outskirts of Bakhmut that day.

According to Reuters, the video circulated by Wagner’s group is the latest among a number of statements and videos that Prigozhin has put out to promote Wagner and himself, who have taken a leading role in the war in Ukraine.

Prigozhin admitted in September last year that he was the founder of the Wagner Group, which has been active for several years in the Donbas region of Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa.

Since then, he has been promoting the achievements of himself and the Wagner group, while strongly criticizing the failure of the Russian regular army that took part in the Ukrainian War.

Last month, the United States declared the Wagner Group a “transnational criminal organization” and announced new sanctions against the organization.

The United States estimates that the Wagner Group is currently deploying around 50,000 troops, including 10,000 contract troops and 40,000 prisoners recruited from Russian prisons, to the Ukrainian front, including Bakhmut.

cjyou@yna.co.kr

Report via KakaoTalk okjebo
< 更多代(c) 周年物利,
Unauthorized reproduction – redistribution prohibited >
2023/02/07 17:11 Send