U.S President Joe Biden has stated that his country and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had no involvement in the short-lived revolt by the Wagner mercenary Group in Russia.
Biden disclosed that he had a video call with allies over the weekend and they are all in sync in working to ensure that they give Russian President Vladimir Putin “no excuse to blame this on the West” or NATO.
“We made it clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within Russian system,” he averred.
Biden added that he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the weekend about the situation, saying that he intended to speak with him (Zelenskyy) again later Monday, June 26, 2023 or early Tuesday, June 27, 2023.
“I told him that no matter what happened in Russia, let me say again, no matter what happened in Russia, we in the United States would continue to support Ukraine’s defense and sovereignty and its territorial integrity.”
President Joe Biden
“We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications from Russia and Ukraine,” Biden said.
“But it’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going,” he iterated.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, and Russia’s military brass have been engaged in an ongoing dispute that erupted into a mutiny, leading the mercenaries to flee Ukraine and take control of a military headquarters in a city in southern Russia. Before turning around after less than 24 hours on Saturday, they traveled hundreds of kilometers into Moscow.
Earlier Monday, Prigozhin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made public comments with both aiming to play down the crisis.
Prigozhin Claims Mutiny Was Meant To Prevent Wagner’s Destruction
In an 11-minute audio statement, Prigozhin said he acted “to prevent the destruction of the Wagner private military company” and moved in response to an attack on a Wagner camp that killed some 30 of his fighters.
“We started our march because of an injustice,” Prigozhin said. He gave no details about where he is or what his future plans are.
In his statement, Prigozhin called his march a “master class” on how Russia’s military should have carried out the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Prigozhin said that “if Russia’s actions in Ukraine last February were carried out by forces trained as Wagner, the special operation could have ended in one day.”
He added that the Wagner march over the weekend, exposed serious security concerns across Russia.
Additionally, Prigozhin taunted the Russian military for failing to protect the country, pointing out security breaches that allowed Wagner to march 780 kilometers (500 miles) without facing resistance and block all military units on its way.
A deal purportedly brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, caused the Wagner troops to halt their revolt.
Prigozhin did not disclose details but said that Lukashenko “proposed finding solutions for the Wagner private military company to continue its work in a lawful jurisdiction.” This suggests that Prigozhin might keep his military force, although it was not immediately clear which jurisdiction he was referring to.
