(23.06.2023)

In a new video released by his press service on Friday, Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin said that Russia’s Defense Ministry deceived both Russian society and Vladimir Putin when it claimed the country faced an imminent threat from Ukraine in the leadup to February 2022.

On the contrary, Prigozhin said, the situation in the Donbas before the full-scale war was no different from the way it had been since 2014: Russian and Ukrainian troops were exchanging fire, but there was no “insane aggression” from Ukraine, and Ukraine had no plans to join NATO in an attack on Russia, said the catering tycoon.