The pro-Ukrainian Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) urged the fighters of the Wagner Group late Thursday night (August 24) to avenge the presumed death of their boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and battlefield commander Dmitry Utkin by switching sides and joining their ranks.
The message was relayed by RVC commander Denis Kapustin after news of Prigozhin's presumed demise in a plane crash northwest of Moscow Wednesday (August 23).
Cause of Crash Still Unknown
Some Wagner troops say the incident was Russian President Vladimir Putin's revenge for Prigozhin's attempted mutiny in his long-standing beef with the Russian defense ministry, particularly with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Military Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov. However, Putin broke his silence about the matter Thursday and sent his condolences to Prigozhin, Utkin, and eight others who perished in the plane crash.
There are also others who speculated that Prigozhin was aware of the threat to his very life and used the crash as a means to escape incognito, just like what he allegedly did in 2019.
Since the news of the plane crash, officials in Washington have been eager to investigate how the Wagner-owned aircraft fell from the sky. According to Reuters, it has cited two US officials Thursday saying a surface-to-air missile (SAM) likely hit the plane. However, the Pentagon later said it had no evidence to support such a method.
Kapustin to Wagner Troops: Join Us
Regardless of Prigozhin's fate, Kapustin urged Wagner troops to change their allegiances to honor the Wagner boss's legacy.
"You are facing a serious choice now - you can stand in a stall of Russia's defense ministry and serve as watchdogs for executors of your commanders or take revenge," he said in a video address the RVC published late Thursday. "To take revenge you need to switch to Ukraine's side."
The anti-Putin commander added the RVC would embrace Wagner contractors who decide to switch sides on the condition they have not committed any war crimes, something the mercenary group was accused of in the early stages of the war in Ukraine and even prior to the Russian full-scale invasion.
"Let's end the bloody meat grinder of the 'special military operation'," he added, using the Russian official name for the invasion of Ukraine. "After that, we will march to Moscow and this time we will not stop 200 kilometers before the Moscow ring road but go to the end."
Kapustin had formed the RVC at the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a message of disapproval against Putin.
Another pro-Ukraine group formed for the same purpose was the Freedom of Russia Legion, which, alongside the RVC, staged a raid inside Russian territory on the border region of Belgorod last May.
Kyiv has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the two Russian partisan groups as well as their operations.
A similar defection was reported just before Prigozhin's plane crashed and burned when a Russian military helicopter pilot defected to the Ukrainian side after he flew a Russian Mi-8 helicopter into Ukrainian territory with parts for Su-27 and Su-30SM fighter jets aboard.
