Russian private military company Wagner it may soon cease to exist, its founder said Evgeny Prigozhin to a Russian blogger who uploaded a video of this statement to the Telegram platform yesterday Friday.

It is not clear when Mr. Prigogine made this statement or how seriously he meant it. Earlier this week, he said he would stop his “musicians” from shelling Bakhmut so that Ukrainian soldiers could show the city to American journalists before clarifying that he was joking.

The head of the mercenary company has repeatedly complained about Moscow’s handling of the war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” over the past 14 months.

It is often argued that the regular army does not supply its fighters with the necessary ammunition and goes so far as to accuse top Russian officers of treason.

“Now, if necessary, we generally have in shells at the front what we want. Today we are approaching the point where Wagner ends,” Prigozhin told Russian blogger Simeon Pegov.

“We will go down in history”

“Wagner will cease to exist in a short period of time. We will go down in history, there is nothing to worry about, these things happen,” he continued.

Mr. Pegoff uploaded the quote to Telegram.

The mercenary company’s public relations department did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Mr Prigozhin, known for his argumentative nature and sarcastic humor, had to explain last Thursday that he was joking when he said he would order his men to stop shelling Bakhmut, where fighting has been going on since the summer.

Earlier this week, he said his men were suffering heavy losses due to the lack of support from the regular army.

Last week, he expressed concern that the Ukrainian military could retaliate against Bakhmut, much of which he says is now occupied by his mercenaries and the Russian military.

Mr. Prigozhin’s Wagner, who is part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, is said to have previously stationed mercenaries in Syria and various war zones in Africa.

In January, the US government declared Wagner an international criminal organization and announced that it would freeze any resources that may be under US jurisdiction due to its involvement in the war in Ukraine.

^{Source: APE-MEB, Reuters}