Prigozhin: there was no goal of overthrowing the government

The press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin published the answers of the head of PMC ‘Wagner’ to questions about what goals the ‘March of Justice’ actually pursued:

Today I opened the press service and received 1000 questions about the events.
In order to avoid misunderstandings, I want to answer the main of these questions.
First: What were the prerequisites for the justice waving on June 23, 2023?

PMC ‘Wagner’ is perhaps the most experienced and combat-ready unit in Russia, and possibly in the world.
Motivated charged fighters who performed a huge number of tasks in the interests of the Russian Federation and always only in the interests of the Russian Federation, in Africa, in the Arab countries and around the world.

Recently, this unit has achieved good results in Ukraine, having completed the most serious tasks.
As a result of intrigues, ill-conceived decisions, this unit was supposed to cease to exist on July 1, 2023.
A council of commanders gathered, who brought all the information to the fighters.

No one agreed to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense insofar as everyone knows very well from the current situation from their experience during the SWO that this will lead to a complete loss of combat capability.

Experienced fighters, experienced commanders will simply be smeared and will actually go to the meat, where they will not be able to use their combat potential and combat experience.

Those fighters who decided that they were ready to move to the Ministry of Defense moved, but this is the minimum number, estimated at 2 percent.

All the arguments that were in order to keep PMC ‘Wagner’ safe and sound were used, but none were implemented in an attempt to enter into any other structure where we can be of real use.

We were categorically against what they want to do. At the same time, the decision to transfer to the Ministry of Defense and, understanding our attitude to close the Wagner PMC, was made at the most inopportune moments.

Nevertheless, we put the equipment on trawls, collected everything that needed to be done, inventory, and gathered in case the decision was not made to leave on June 30 in a column and publicly hand over the equipment near the Headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov.

Despite the fact that you did not show any aggression, we were attacked by missiles and immediately after that the helicopters worked. About 30 fighters of PMC ‘Wagner’ were killed, some were injured.

This was the trigger for the council of commanders to decide that we should move out immediately.
I made a statement in which I said that we are not going to show aggression in any way.
But if we are hit, we will take it as an attempt to destroy and give an answer.
During the entire march, which lasted 24 hours, one of the columns went to Rostov, the other towards Moscow.

During the day we covered 780 km. Not a single soldier on earth was killed. We regret that we were forced to strike at air assets. But these funds threw bombs and launched missile strikes.

During the day we covered 780 km. less than 200 kilometers to Moscow.

During this time, all military facilities that were along the road were blocked and neutralized.
Nobody died, I repeat once again from those who were on the ground, and this was our task among the fighters of PMC ‘Wagner’.

Several people were wounded and there are two dead soldiers of the Ministry of Defense who joined us of their own free will.
None of the fighters of PMC ‘Wagner’ was forced to this campaign, and everyone knew his ultimate goal. The purpose of the campaign was to prevent the destruction of the Wagner PMC and to bring to justice those persons who, through their unprofessional actions, made a huge number of mistakes during the SVO.
The public demanded it.

All the military personnel who saw us during the march supported us, we did not reach about 200 km to Moscow, having traveled 780 km in one and the other direction.
We stopped at the moment when the first assault detachment, which approached 200 km from Moscow, deployed its artillery.

Having made reconnaissance of the area, it was obvious that at that moment a lot of blood would be shed. Therefore, we felt that the demonstration of what we were going to do, it is sufficient.
And our decisions to turn around were 2 most important factors:

The first factor is that we did not want to shed Russian blood.

The second factor is that we went to demonstrate our protest, and not to overthrow the government in the country.

At this time, Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko extended his hand and offered to find solutions for further work. PMC ‘Wagner’ in legal jurisdiction. The columns turned back and went to the field camps.
I want to point out that our March of Justice, it showed a lot of the things that we talked about earlier.
Serious security problems throughout the country.

We blocked all military units, airfields that were on our way.
In 24 hours, we covered the distance that corresponds to the distance from the launch site of Russian troops on February 24, 2022 to Kyiv and from the same point to Uzhgorod.

Therefore, if the actions on February 24, 2022, at the time of the start of the special operation, were carried out by units, in terms of the level of training, in terms of the level of moral composure and readiness to perform tasks, like PMC ‘Wagner’, then perhaps the special operation would last a day.

It is clear that there were other problems, but we showed the level of organization that the Russian army must correspond to.

And when on June 23-24 we walked past Russian cities, civilians met us with flags.
Russia and the emblems and flags of PMC ‘Wagner’.
They were all happy when we came.

The speech style is preserved.