Posted a few minutes ago on the RT website:
'Vladimir Putin has led Russia to abject failure with his invasion of Ukraine' the head of the Russian Wagner mercenary group has said in an astonishing outburst. 'Far from demilitarising Ukraine – Russia's key war aim – Putin's botched strategy has seen Kyiv amass one of the world's strongest armies through massive Western supplies' Yevgeny Prigozhin said. Prigozhin gave a devastating critique of the war strategy. He then warned of impending 'revolution' in Russia unless changes were made by the Kremlin leadership. In an astonishing attack on military leaders, he said Russia would restore the death penalty and the guilty – he named defence ministry Sergei Shoigu and chief of the defence staff Valery Gerasimov as responsible for the war crisis – would be 'hanged on Red Square'.
Prigozhin blamed both Shoigu and Gerasimov for losing more men in Bakhmut than in the entire ten-year Soviet war in Afghanistan from 1979-89, which eventually led to the collapse of the USSR. He told interviewer Konstantin Dolgov - a prominent pro-war blogger: 'As for de-militarisation… [this is] a painful issue indeed.
'So if they had at the start of it 500 tanks – now they have 5,000. If there were 20,000 men who were able to fight – now there are 400,000. So how exactly did we demilitarise it? 'Quite the opposite! We militarised it up to the brim.
'I think Ukrainians today are one of the world's strongest armies. They have high levels of organisation, training, military intelligence. He lambasted the comfortable elites in Russia who continued to live normally while cannon fodder troops at the front lost their lives in huge numbers. Their sons must be forced to the war, he said.
'When you bury them, the rest of Russian parents who receive their kids in zinc coffins would feel that now the situation is right. If this doesn't happen, we risk revolution.' Prigozhin warned of the real threat of Russia losing the war. The warlord said he now 'hardly believes' it possible that Russia can see through one of the most optimistic scenarios of holding on to the territory it now has. The 'pessimistic scenario', he said, is that Ukraine can 'restore the 2014 borders, they will try to attack Crimea, destroy the Crimean Bridge, and cut off routes of supply. 'And most likely the scenario won't be good for us,' he said. Russia 'must prepare for a heavy war. What must we do – not to lose Russia? Because today we are in a state when we can lose Russia. 'We must introduce martial law. We must call new waves of mobilisation. We must switch everyone to production of weapons. 'Stop building skyscrapers, new roads, new infrastructure – and work only for the war. We must live like in North Korea for several years, and shut the borders.'