Wagner Group Chief’s Russia Rift Sparks Avalanche of Jokes, Memes

Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s declaration of war against the Russian Ministry of Defense has sparked a storm of jokes on social media about a looming “Russian Civil War.”

Prigozhin has been repeatedly critical of Russian leadership while his private mercenaries have played their own role in the invasion of Ukraine, and the rift appears to have reached a breaking point. On Friday, Prigozhin accused the Russian military of attacking Wagner positions with missiles, and declared war on his former battlefield ally.

“We are 25,000 strong, and we are going to figure out why chaos is happening in Russia,” Prigozhin wrote on Telegram. “Everyone else is free to join us.”

A billboard of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group is seen depicting Russian servicemen with the inscription, “Join the winning team,” in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin on Friday announced he was declaring war against Russia’s military. Artem Priakhin/SOPA Images/Getty

The news has yet to garner a direct response from Russian President Vladimir Putin, but Twitter users were quick to spread word of a coming “civil war” in Russia, and several celebrated the news with a meme.

“Honey wake up, Russian civil war is starting,” read one meme posted by political columnist Manolis Giannarakis.

Iuliia Mendel, spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, posted a video of what appears to be the Ukrainian president in an old commercial grabbing a beer bottle and a bowl of chips to watch television.

“Ukrainians tonight,” Mendel quipped.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul responded to Mendel’s post, “Some Americans too!”

Other users posted memes or jokes in response to a tweet from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, who wrote Friday night, “We are watching.”

It’s unclear if the ministry’s post was in reference to Prigozhin’s declaration of war, but several users inferred that the two instances were connected. One user posted a screenshot underneath the tweet of a college football fan holding up a sign that read, “I just hope both teams have fun.”

Another user, Anna Komsa, responded with a meme taken from the 2021 movie, Dune. In the photo, one character, who is marked by a NATO flag, tells the other, “Smile Poland, The Russians are killing each other.”

“I am smiling,” the other character, marked by a Polish flag, responds.

Newsweek has reached out to Zelensky’s press office via email for comment.

On Friday, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement to the Russian state-owned news site TASS that Prigozhin’s declaration “are in fact calls for the start of an armed civil conflict on the territory of the Russian Federation” and announced a criminal case had been opened against him.

The FSB also said that Prigozhin’s claims about the Russian defense ministry attacking Wagner troops were “untrue,” and called on the private fighters to refuse orders from their leader.

“We call on [Wagner Group] fighters not to make irreparable mistakes, to stop any forceful actions against the Russian people, not to carry out Prigozhin’s criminal and treacherous orders, and to take measures to detain him,” the FSB said.