Extract from ABC News
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, has warned that Russia could face a revolution similar to those of 1917 and lose the war in Ukraine unless the elite got serious about fighting the war.
Key points:
- Mr Prigozhin says Russia needs to impose martial law and prepare for "an arduous war"
- He says the children of Russian elites are not being sent to fight and warned of the potential of revolution
- Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin visited Beijing and met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and President Xi Jinping
Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War II and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Ukraine is preparing a counteroffensive aimed at pushing Russian troops back to the borders of before 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, Mr Prigozhin said.
Ukraine would try to encircle Bakhmut and attack Crimea, he added.
"Most likely of all, this scenario will not be good for Russia so we need to prepare for an arduous war," he said in an interview posted on his Telegram channel.
"We are in such a condition that we could f***ing lose Russia — that is the main problem … We need to impose martial law."
Mr Prigozhin said his political outlook was dominated by love for the motherland and serving Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He said the nickname of "Putin's chef" was stupid as he couldn't cook, quipping that "Putin's butcher" might be a more apt nickname.
Russia's elite, he said, protected their own children from fighting the war while the children of ordinary Russians perished on the front, a situation he said that could trigger turmoil in Russia.
If ordinary Russians continued getting their children back in zinc coffins while the children of the elite sunned themselves abroad, he said, Russia would face turmoil along the lines of the 1917 revolutions that ushered in a civil war.
Russia 'lost 20,000 fighters in Bakhmut'
Mr Prigozhin says his force lost more than 20,000 fighters in the drawn-out battle for Bakhmut, with about 20 per cent of the 50,000 Russian convicts he recruited to fight in the 15-month war dying in the eastern Ukrainian city.
The figure was in stark contrast with claims from Moscow that it lost just over 6,000 troops during the entirety of the war, and is higher than the official estimate of the Soviet losses in the Afghanistan war of 15,000 troops between 1979-89.
Ukraine has not said how many of its soldiers have died since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Analysts believe the nine-month fight for Bakhmut alone have cost the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, among them convicts who reportedly received little training before being sent to the front.
Russia's invasion goal of "demilitarising" Ukraine has backfired because Kyiv's military has become stronger with the supply of weapons and training by its Western allies, Mr Prigozhin said in an interview with Konstantin Dolgov, a pro-Kremlin political strategist.
Mr Prigozhin also said the Kremlin's forces have killed civilians during the war, something Moscow has repeatedly and vehemently denied.
Ukrainian officials have insisted the battle for Bakhmut is not over.
The Ukrainian General Staff said on Wednesday that "heavy fighting" is continuing inside Bakhmut, days after Russia said that it completely captured the devastated city.
Mr Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman with longtime links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is known for his bluster — often spiced with obscenities — and has previously made unverifiable claims, some of which he later backtracked on.
Earlier this month, his spokespeople published a video of him shouting, swearing and pointing at about 30 uniformed bodies lying on the ground, saying they were Wagner fighters who died in a single day.
He claimed the Russian Defence Ministry had starved his men of ammunition and threatened to give up the fight for Bakhmut.
Russia says incursions will be dealt with 'extremely harshly'
The Kremlin said the use of US-made military hardware by pro-Ukrainian fighters who conducted a raid on a Russian border region this week was testament to the West's growing involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
The Russian military said on Tuesday it had routed militants who attacked the Russian border region of Belgorod with armoured vehicles the previous day, killing more than 70 "Ukrainian nationalists" and pushing the remainder back into Ukraine.
Ukraine's government denied any role in the raid, which has been claimed by two anti-Kremlin armed groups made up of Russian nationals fighting for Kyiv against their compatriots. They include far-right figures among their leadership.
Russia said it had destroyed four armoured vehicles and five pick-up trucks to repel what was one of the largest incursions onto Russian soil from Ukraine since the war began.
Footage of some of the destroyed vehicles released by the Russian defence ministry showed US-made military hardware such as Humvee military trucks.
Reuters was able to confirm the location of damaged vehicles and surrounding details shown in the video, though could not verify the date it was filmed.
The United States, Ukraine's biggest military supplier, has played down reports that American-made military hardware was used in the raid.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said he was "sceptical at this time of the veracity of these reports".
"As a more general principle ... we do not encourage or enable strikes inside of Russia and we've made that clear. But as we've also said, it's up to Ukraine to decide how to conduct this war," he said.
Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder said it was the US Department of Defense would "keep a close eye on".
"I will say that we can confirm that the US government has not approved any third party transfers of equipment to paramilitary organisations outside the Ukrainian armed forces, nor has the Ukrainian government requested any such transfer," he said.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu promised that Moscow would respond to any more cross-border raids by militants swiftly and "extremely harshly".
"It is no secret for us that more and more equipment is being delivered to Ukraine's armed forces," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the fighters' use of Western-made hardware.
"It is no secret that this equipment is being used against our own military. And it is no secret for us that the direct and indirect involvement of Western countries in this conflict is growing by the day. We are drawing the appropriate conclusions."
Russia, China seal economic pacts
Russia's prime minister signed a set of agreements with China on Wednesday during a trip to Beijing, describing bilateral ties at an unprecedented high, despite disapproval from the West of their relationship as the war in Ukraine dragged on.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin — the highest ranking Russian official to visit Beijing since Moscow's invasion — held talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and later met with President Xi Jinping.
With the war in Ukraine in its second year and Russia increasingly feeling the weight of Western sanctions, Moscow has been leaning on Beijing for support, far more than China on Russia, feeding on Chinese demand for oil and gas.
The pressure from the West has shown no sign of easing, with the Group of Seven nations' weekend declarations singling both countries out on a plethora of issues including Ukraine.
"Today, relations between Russia and China are at an unprecedented high level," Mr Mishustin told Mr Li in their meeting.
"They are characterised by mutual respect of each other's interests, the desire to jointly respond to challenges, which is associated with increased turbulence in the international arena and the pattern of sensational pressure from the collective West.
"As our Chinese friends say, unity makes it possible to move mountains."
The memorandums of understanding signed included an agreement to deepen investment cooperation in trade services, a pact on export of agricultural products to China, and another on sports cooperation.
Russia's energy shipments to China are projected to rise 40 per cent this year, and the two countries are discussing technological equipment supplies to Russia, Interfax news agency reported.
Mr Xi visited Russia in March and held talks with "dear friend" Mr Putin, after committing to a "no limits" partnership just before the 2022 Russia attack on Ukraine.
Beijing has rejected Western attempts to link its partnership with Moscow to Ukraine, insisting their relationship does not violate international norms, China has the right to collaborate with who it chooses, and their cooperation is not targeted at any third countries.
"China is willing to work with Russia to implement the joint cooperation between the two countries, and promoting pragmatic cooperation in various fields can take it to a new level," Mr Li told Mr Mishustin.
Deepening of ties with China is a strategic course for Moscow, said the secretary of Russia's Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, who held talks on Monday with Chen Wenqing, member of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo who oversees police, legal affairs and intelligence.
Beijing has refrained from openly denouncing Russia's invasion.
But since February, Mr Xi has promoted a peace plan, which has been met with scepticism from the West and cautiously welcomed by Kyiv.
Mr Xi also held a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in late April, in the first talks between the two leaders since the war began.
Last week, China's special representative for Eurasian affairs Li Hui visited Ukraine and met with Mr Zelenskyy in a European tour that Beijing billed as its effort to promote peace talks and a political settlement of the crisis.
Li Hui is scheduled to visit Russia on Friday.
Crimean Bridge re-opens
The Russian-built Crimean Bridge linking the Crimean peninsula to the Russian region of Krasnodar was reopened on Wednesday after being closed for several hours for "exercises", an official from Crimea's Russian-backed administration said.
It was not clear what was meant by exercises.
A local radio station posted a video on YouTube, which Reuters could not verify, showing white smoke billowing from the main central span of the bridge, and more smoke rising from one of the approaches to the bridge.
The 19 kilometre road and rail bridge was damaged by an explosion last October, in an attack that the Kremlin said had been orchestrated by Ukrainian security forces.
Ukraine did not claim responsibility.
Crimea was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, but is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.
Reuters/ABC
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