Prigozhin thanks Soledar fighters: Heavier than Stalingrad
The head of the notorious Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, thanked his fighters for their efforts in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar. In a video excerpt distributed on Monday, which shows Prigozchin in front of a group of mercenaries at the tail of a transport plane, he recalled the past few months in the war. “We now have half a year of war behind us, like neither your grandfathers nor great-grandfathers experienced,” said Prigozhin. Compared to the battles for Soledar, the Red Army’s battle for Stalingrad in 1942 against the German Wehrmacht was “more of a vacation”.
During weeks of bitter fighting for the small town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, mercenaries from Wagner’s troops spearheaded the Russian attacks. The mercenaries suffered the heaviest casualties in capturing the town. Prigozhin, a confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has recruited thousands of prisoners for deployment in Ukraine in Russia.