This weekend's short-lived revolt by the Wagner Group in Russia shows President Vladimir Putin "does not have total control over Russia," Sen. Ed Markey said Monday.
The Massachusetts Democrat said the incident "shows great instability" in the region and makes it critically important that the U.S. shows its support for Ukraine.
"It's very important for us as a result to ensure that we provide the support for the Ukraine that makes it impossible for an autocracy run by Putin to overrun a democracy that the Ukrainian people are fighting so hard to preserve," Markey said during a media availability in Massachusetts. "On the one hand, there's clearly a battle going on in Russia, and that struggle internally is one that ultimately, in my opinion, can help Ukraine, and that's what I think the U.S. on a bipartisan basis has to continue to focus upon."
He added that "we cannot allow Putin or the Wagner Group to threaten the democracy in Ukraine," but said the internal struggle in Russia is ultimately something that is going to be good for Ukraine as long as the U.S. and NATO continue to support the Ukrainian people.
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A feud between the Wagner Group leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and Russia’s military brass that has festered throughout the war erupted into a mutiny that saw the mercenaries leave Ukraine to seize a military headquarters in a southern Russian city. They rolled for hundreds of kilometers toward Moscow, before turning around after less than 24 hours on Saturday.
Under terms of the agreement that ended the crisis, Prigozhin, who led his Wagner troops in the failed uprising, will go into exile in Belarus but will not face prosecution. But it was not immediately clear what would ultimately happen to him and his forces. Few details of the deal were released either by the Kremlin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who brokered it.
Prigozhin defended his short-lived insurrection in a boastful, taunting audio statement Monday as the Kremlin tried to project stability, with authorities releasing a video of the defense minister reviewing troops in Ukraine.
In an 11-minute audio statement, Prigozhin said he acted to prevent the destruction of his private military company, Wagner, and wasn’t seeking to stage a coup. “We started our march because of an injustice,” he said, giving no details about where he was or what his plans were.
Prigozhin taunted Russia’s military on Monday, calling his march a “master class” on how it should have carried out the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He also mocked the military for failing to protect Russia, pointing out security breaches that allowed Wagner to march 780 kilometers toward Moscow without facing resistance.
The bullish statement made no clearer what would ultimately happen to Prigozhin and his forces under the deal purportedly brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The independent Russian news outlet Vyorstka claimed that construction of a field camp for up to 8,000 Wagner troops was underway in an area of Belarus about 200 kilometers north of the border with Ukraine. The report couldn’t be independently verified.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
