Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has revealed that his feud with Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu began at least five years ago when scores of his fighters were reportedly killed by U.S. airstrikes during the Battle of Khasham in Syria.
The Russian businessman published a Telegram post on June 12 describing the events that unfolded when U.S. forces conducted air strikes against a pro-regime force in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate of Syria in February 2018 during an attempt to capture a U.S.-held oil refinery. It marked the bloodiest clash between U.S. and Russian citizens since the Cold War.
Prigozhin accused Shoigu of abandoning Wagner in Syria as the Russian mercenaries were annihilated by U.S.-led forces, including by Reaper drones and Apache helicopter gunships.
A public feud between Prigozhin and Shoigu culminated on June 24 when the Wagner chief said he took control of two military hubs in southern Russia and advanced to Moscow as part of a "march of justice" against the country's military leadership over the handling of the war in Ukraine.
Tensions between the pair had flared up, particularly in the last six months, but the message posted by Prigozhin nearly two weeks before his mutiny attempt reveals a strained relationship dating back to the bloody massacre in Syria.
The Wagner boss claimed Russia's Defense Ministry had knowledge of the impending U.S. strike, and that the U.S. contacted the Russian military command about the strike to allow units to withdraw from the area.
"However, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense ignored the need to warn us about this," said Prigozhin.
Russia's military command also allegedly received an order to turn off all air defense systems.
"Air defense systems, as I said, were all disabled and what happened happened: at 23:45, strikes began on Russian units...there were no planes, air defense systems did not work," he said.
"At 03:00 at night, we finally managed to break through to the headquarters of the [Russian] Armed Forces in order to talk with the officer on duty."
Prigozhin said there was one colonel who reportedly said he'd attempt to "resolve the issue" so that the shelling would stop and Wagner Group fighters could "pull out the bodies of their dead comrades."
The mercenary group chief said he "urgently" flew to Moscow on February 9 to try to secure an appointment "to find out what happened."
"I wanted to know why all the agreements collapsed and the tragedy happened on February 8th," Prigozhin said.
But despite several attempts to meet the defense minister, Shoigu "didn't have time to talk to me," said Prigozhin, adding that he was given an arrogant and dismissive response when the pair met at a reception in the Kremlin at a later undisclosed date.
Prigozhin's short-lived rebellion on June 24 came to an abrupt halt after he marched on Moscow, calling for the resignation of Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. He pulled back his men after the Kremlin said Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko had brokered a deal to avoid bloodshed.
Newsweek has contacted the Pentagon and Russia's Defense Ministry via email for comment.
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About the writer
Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
