The armed munity on the Kremlin led by mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin highlights Russia’s “full-scale weakness,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, adding “no lie can hide” the “chaos” inside the country.
“Russia’s weakness is obvious. Full-scale weakness,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter. “And the longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain, and problems it will have for itself later.”
“Everyone who chooses the path of evil destroys themselves,” Zelensky also wrote. “… Who terrorizes with missiles, and when they are shot down, humiliates himself to receive Shahed drones. Who despises people and throws hundreds of thousands into the war, in order to eventually barricade himself in the Moscow region from those whom he himself armed.
“For a long time, Russia used propaganda to mask its weakness and the stupidity of its government. And now there is so much chaos that no lie can hide it.”
He also boasted it’s “obvious” Ukraine “is able to protect Europe from the spread of Russian evil and chaos.”
Ukraine has been fighting off an invasion by Russia since February 2022. REUTERS
An apartment building destroyed by Russian forces is seen in Bakhmut earlier this year. AP“We keep our resilience, unity and strength. All our commanders, all our soldiers know what to do. Glory to Ukraine!” said Zelensky, whose country has been fighting off a Russian invasion since February 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Saturday to crush the armed rebellion by Prigozhin, who led his troops out of Ukraine and into a key city south of Moscow.
Everything to know about the Wagner Group's attack on Russia
Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenary fighting force will not face charges and will instead be exiled despite leading an armed insurrection against Moscow on Saturday, the Kremlin said.
Prigozhin, owner and founder of the mercenary organization, called for an armed rebellion and threatened to rush Moscow in order to oust the official whom he accused of ordering the bombing of his war camps in Ukraine.
However, Prigozhin eventually agreed to halt the Wagner Group’s advance on Moscow just 120 miles from the capital after a day-long negotiation the mercenary leader had with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was given permission to broker a deal with Progozhin by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin’s presidential plane left Moscow early Saturday, sparking rumors that he had fled the Russian capital as the Wagner Group’s forces advanced on the city.
The president’s aircraft was spotted on flight radar flying northwest from Moscow to the St. Petersburg area — but then disappeared from the system near the city of Tver, the BBC reported, where Putin owns a large rural retreat.
The uprising, which Putin called “a stab in the back,” was the biggest threat to his leadership in over two decades in power.
Rescuers work inside an apartment building damaged following a Russian attack in Kyiv on Saturday. AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin is calling the uprising “a stab in the back.”
Prigozhin’s private military contractor, known as the Wagner Group, has been fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine.
The rebellion marks an escalation in Prigozhin’s struggle with Russian military leaders, who he has accused of botching the war in Ukraine and hamstringing his forces in the field.
With Post wires
