The head of the mercenary Wagner Group said he is certain there will be major Russian losses on the battlefield in Ukraine and a loss of territory inside Russia.
Yevgeny Prigozhin also said the generals responsible for the Russian failures will face capital punishment as ordered by the State Duma.
"We will now suffer serious losses. I am absolutely certain of it," Prigozhin said in a video posted to the Telegram chat app.
"There will either be a popular revolt, or the State Duma will make a decision for capital punishment and gun them the f*** down and, honestly, I think we're two to three months away from the firing squads," he added.
The report came a day after Prigozhin called on Moscow to provide him with 200,000 troops to halt the long-promised Ukrainian counteroffensive.
"I need 200,000 people," Prigozhin said, as quoted in an article by The Moscow Times. "Less than 200,000 on the Luhansk-Donetsk frontline will not cope. We are ready to take full responsibility."
Ukrainian forces, Prigozhin said, "have already broken through the line of defense" in several areas.
"Near Bakhmut in three places, in Toretsk there is a large accumulation, and soon they will begin to cut Kurdyumovka and Ozaryanovka. The Belgorod region is bursting at the seams. In Zaporizhzhia, they lost the most serious settlement. Now they will hit the north and south in the Donetsk direction and there will be no time. Aviation will not save [the situation]."
Prigozhin also criticized the Russian Defense Ministry.
"There is no management, there is no planning, there is no preparation, there is no mutual respect," he said. "And then all this is replaced by tantrums at the top. ...We will now suffer serious losses, I am absolutely sure of this. We will certainly lose part of the territories."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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