Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman close to the Kremlin, has admitted that he founded the Wagner mercenary group in 2014 to fight in Ukraine and that they were deployed to countries in Latin America and Africa.
In a statement posted on the social media account of his company Concorde, Prigozhin emphasized that he founded the group in 2014 with the aim of sending fighters to the Donbas region of Ukraine and said, “From that moment on, a group of patriots was born, which was named BTG Wagner on May 1, 2014.”
Prigozhin, who has been dubbed ‘Putin’s chef’ due to the catering company Concord’s catering contracts with the Kremlin, had previously denied his connection to Wagner.
The Russian businessman continued his statement in his post as follows:
“I cleaned old weapons myself, found bulletproof vests, and found specialists who could help me with this. These men, heroes, who defend the Syrian people, the people of other Arab countries, poor Africans and Latin Americans, have become the pillars of our homeland.”
This paramilitary group is suspected of having been carrying out secret Kremlin missions for years, with various operations that Moscow has always denied.
Some Western countries accuse Yevgeny Prigozhin of being the financier of the Wagner group, known to be in Syria, Libya, Ukraine and even the Central African Republic.
