General Sergei Surovikin, commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, visits the Joint Headquarters of the Russian armed forces involved in military operations in Ukraine, in an unknown location in Russia, in this picture released December 17, 2022. Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Kremlin via REUTERS
The deputy commander of Russia’s Ukraine campaign, General Sergei Surovikin, on Friday urged the fighters of the Wagner private militia to give up their opposition to the military leadership and return to their bases.
“I urge you to stop,” he said in a video message posted on Telegram. “The enemy is just waiting for the internal political situation to worsen in our country.”
Earlier on Friday, the FSB security service had said comments by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin vowing to avenge Moscow’s purported killing of thousands of his fighters amounted to a call to start an armed civil conflict, the Interfax news agency reported. It urged Wagner fighters to arrest him.