The leader of the paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced Tuesday, May 16, the death of an American volunteer engaged alongside troops in Kiev, eastern Ukraine. In a video relayed by Russian military bloggers, Yevgeny Prigozhin showed the body of a soldier he says is American, in the rubble of a building. In this short video, he is seen walking with his men at night and we hear thuds of explosions around, without being able to determine exactly where the scene takes place or when.
Standing next to the body of this soldier lying on his back bare-chested, a wound in his stomach, he said in a solemn and ironic tone: "He came to meet us. Citizen of the United States of America". Without giving his suit, Yevgeny Prigozhin shows the camera in the dark what look like the personal documents of the soldier in question.
" READ ALSO Sudan: the troubled game of Wagner in support of General Hemedti
"We will return it to the United States"
«
We will return it to the United States. It will be put in a coffin (with) the American flag. With respect, because he did not die in a grandfather's bed but in war," said the businessman whose paramilitary group is on the front line on the Russian side in the bloody battle for Bakhmut. Prigozhin's claims were not immediately independently verifiable by AFP.
In a message published Tuesday evening by his press service, Yevgeny Prigozhin added that "of course, I will hand over the body" of this fighter to the US authorities. "I will do it especially for the Washington Post," he continued in his characteristic provocative style, a few days after the American daily reported that he had offered Ukrainian intelligence to provide him with information on the location of Russian army units, in exchange for a withdrawal of Kiev forces from Bakhmut. Yevgeny Prigozhin on Monday described the press reports as "laughable".
