The head of the Wagner paramilitary group said on Saturday that he is ready to send his units to protect Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, which has been hit by intense shelling and attacks in recent days, AFP reports.

“If the Ministry of Defense (of the Russian Federation) does not stop what is happening in the Belgorod region (…), where Russian territory is actually captured, then obviously we will leave,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said.

Prigozhin is not waiting for an invitation, but he has a condition

“We will defend (…) the Russian people and all who live there,” he added in an audio message released by his press service, adding that his people would not wait for an “invitation” or permission to enter the region.

“The only thing we will ask for is ammunition so that they don’t come, as they say, to our house, naked in the cold,” Prigozhin added.

Chief Wagner, who regularly criticizes the Russian military headquarters, accused it on Saturday of “ceding” territory in the Belgorod region.

“The Ministry of Defense (of the Russian Federation) is unable to do anything, because de facto it does not exist, it is in disarray,” Prigozhin said.

A day earlier, he announced that Wagner’s troops had left “99%” of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and handed over their positions to the regular army.

Chaos in the Belgorod region

In recent days, the Belgorod region, especially the cities closest to the Ukrainian border, have experienced shelling of an intensity not seen since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine at the end of February 2022.

Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the region was hit by more than 500 artillery, mortar and volley fire systems on Friday, including more than 370 in and around the town of Chebekino, where hundreds of civilians fled.

On Saturday, Gladkov said that one more person was killed in Friday’s strikes, bringing the number of victims to five. According to Russian authorities, at least 27 people were injured.

Moscow also said Thursday it had repelled an attempted Ukrainian ground attack in the region with its air force and artillery, a week after a spectacular armed incursion exposed the vulnerability of Russia’s borders.

The Freedom of Russia Legion, which has recently been invading Russian territory from Ukraine, said on Saturday that Moscow’s military is randomly bombing its own population.