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Wagner fighter on mutiny against Vladimir Putin: ‘Agreed to leave each other alone, but…’
Much like the Russian troops, the Wagner junior commander and his troop had no idea about the operation they were part of.
Wagner mercenaries crossed the border and entered Russia without any resistance during the armed mutiny, and if any, they were saluted instead by the traffic police on the way, a junior commander of the mercenary group said, as quoted by BBC. He further said the fighters were asked to leave Ukraine, as commanded by boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, unaware of where they are heading.
Much like how the Russian troops were ordered to march towards Ukraine as a part of ‘routine exercise’, only to realise later that they are at war with their neighbouring country, the junior Wagner commander, like any other fighters, had no clue about the operation he was a part of.
"We learned what was happening from Telegram, just like you did," he told the English broadcaster.
To give an overview of how clueless the operation was, the junior commander said his troop was asked to surround the Federal Security Service's (FSB) office building after they entered southern Russia's important military city of Rostov-on-Don. Following order, they captured the building, searched for possible sign of life. Half-an-hour later, when two people came out of the office, the fighters were asked to ‘make a deal’. “What's there to make a deal about? This is our city,” the commander said to have responded. "So we just agreed that we would leave each other alone. They came out to smoke from time to time," he added.
After the attempt to topple Russia's defence leadership reached a dead-end, mercenaries were asked to head back to their base in Luhansk, so they did, where they learnt all the developments related to Prigozhin's criminal charge being lodged and dis-lodged sequentially.
Unclear about their futures, the junior commander, with his troop, is awaiting further orders.
