“Putinʼs cook” Evgeny Prigozhin admitted that he owns PMC “Wagner”. It is also fighting in Ukraine

An associate of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin his "cook" Evgeny Prigozhin, who previously publicly denied his connection with the Private Military Company (PMC) “Wagner", admitted for the first time that it was he who created this company in 2014.

On September 26, his company "Concord" published a corresponding statement on its VKontakte page.

"In 2014 […] me, like many other businessmen, went to the training grounds where the “cossacks” gathered. There I tried to overspend to recruit a group that would go and protect the Russians. But very quickly I realized that among all these "cossacks" and other paramilitary comrades, half of them were fraudsters. Another half of them were those who took money, hired volunteers and sent them “naked and barefoot” to real death. Then I flew to one of the training grounds and did it myself. I cleaned the old weapons myself, sorted out the bulletproof vests myself and found specialists who were able to help me. From that moment, on May 1, 2014, a group of patriots was born, which later acquired the name BTG "Wagner". Exceptionally thanks to their courage and bravery, the "liberation of Luhansk airport" and many other territories became possible, and the fate of the "LPR" and "DPR" was fundamentally changed,” Prigozhin told.

In September, a video of a Prigozhin in one of the colonies advocating for prisoners to join to PMC “Wagner” appeared on the Internet: after six months of service, according to him, all those who survived would be pardoned and sent home. The main "sin", according to Prigozhin, is desertion, for which they are shot.

The Insider writes that Prigozhin has previously publicly denied any connection with a private military company. In particular, the company associated with him published the following statement: "We do not know about the activities of the organization you mentioned. Evgeny Viktorovych also asked to convey that he is extremely surprised by the very fact of the existence of this company and has nothing to do with its activities."

• On July 29, 2022, Ukrainian military intelligence reported that Russian mercenaries from the PMC “Wagner” were behind the explosion in the colony in Olenivka, where the Russians held Ukrainian prisoners of war. They carried out the explosion on the instructions of the owner of PMC — "Putinʼs cook" Yevgeny Prigozhin. They did not coordinate the organization and actual terrorist attack with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.