‘I Support Him. Well Done, Prigozhin’ – Intercept of Russian Soldier Discussing ‘Mutiny’ With His Wife

On June 27, Ukrainian military intelligence published an intercept it said was of a telephone conversation between a Russian military service member and his wife, in which they discuss the weekend move by the Wagner mercenary group and its boss Evgeney Prigozhin to enter Russia and defy the Kremlin. Kyiv Post was unable to confirm the authenticity of the recording.

According to Ukraine’s Main Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR), which published the audio, the unnamed Russian serviceman tells his wife he is strongly behind the effective invasion of Russia by Wagner fighters and tells her that support of the Wagner mutineers and opposition to President Vladimir Putin was substantial among local citizens and military units. 

The conversation starts with the wife asking her husband whether he knew what the Wagner group had been doing recently.

- Of course! You don’t know what’s going on.

- About Wagner? Well done!

- Did they tell you already?

- Yeah. Let them go to the Kremlin to fu*k up that motherfu*ker Putin.

- A civil war is about to break out!

- Well, it’s time everyone got fu*ked up.

- Rostov they captured with convoys of cars, in fact, there are tanks right in the city of Rostov, Voronezh, and Prigozhin’s speech, he said if (Russian Defense Minister Sergei) Shoigu doesn’t come to the talks, I’m (Prigozhin) going straight to Moscow.

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- It’s about time - I support him. Absolutely, well done, Prigozhin!

- Everyone is afraid of them there, even cops; all of them are in the military. They are laying down their arms right in front of them. They don’t even try to fight them.

- Now they’ll take over all the units and airfields and f*ck Putin.

- And what will happen? Fu*k Russia?

- Has Putin done anything for Russia?

- No, you see, people are splitting into two camps here now. It’s going to be a civil war; everybody's worried. What's going on?

- We’re all fu*ked; that’s what’s gonna happen.

- Is Shoigu afraid to meet Prigozhin?

- Of course, he is.  

According to the information Gulagu.net, representatives of Prigozhin’s inner circle, including mercenaries, were aware of the plans. Persons aware of the Wagner mutiny before it actually took place include multiple senior Russian military officials, and specifically a former head of all Russian forces invading Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, the site said.

The list of Russian officials who purportedly knew of the upcoming mutiny was published by Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the human rights project Gulagu.net. The Wagner challenge to the Kremlin and its conduct of the war received substantial support on the ground, he said.

“The Wagnerians managed to penetrate the territory of the Russian Federation and reach a distance of 200 km from Moscow,” Osechkin said, in comments on the list.

“It was possible because some units of the Russian Federal National Guard Service, the Federal Security Service, and the Russian Ministry of Defense partially or fully supported their side.”