Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner’s mercenary group, has warned that Russia could face a revolution similar to the 1917 revolution and could lose the conflict in Ukraine if the country’s elites do not get seriously involved in the war, Reuters reports.

According to Prigozhin, Ukraine is preparing a counteroffensive to push Russian troops back to the borders before 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

Ukraine will try to surround Bakhmut and advance on Crimea, he added.

“Most likely, this scenario will be unsuccessful for Russia, so we should prepare for a full-scale war,” he said in an interview published on his Telegram channel.

Prigozhin: “We can lose Russia to hell”

“We are in such a state that we can lose the hell out of Russia – that’s the main problem… We need to introduce martial law,” continued the leader of the Wagner group.

Prigozhin stated that his political vision is dominated by love for the country and service to Putin. He called the nickname “Putin’s cook” silly because he can’t cook, joking that “Putin’s butcher” would be a more appropriate moniker.

He said Russia’s elite protected their own children from combat during the war, while the children of ordinary Russians died on the front lines, a situation he said could spark unrest in Russia.

If ordinary Russians continue to meet their children in zinc coffins and the children of the elite sunbathe abroad, he said, Russia will face upheavals similar to the 1917 revolutions that led to civil war.