Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the creation of Ukraine’s first marine corps, as the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said military failures have allowed Kyiv to amass ‘one of the world’s strongest armies’.

Video footage posted online showed Zelensky, clad in his familiar khaki army sweatshirt and trousers, handing out awards to male and female marines on the force’s national holiday.

Recounting the visit near Vuhledar and Maryinka in Donetsk in his nightly address, he said: ‘I presented state awards to the warriors and ribbons “For Courage and Bravery” to the best units defending this part of the frontline.’

The president said the Ukrainian government would create a specialised marines corps and promised to provide new weapons and equipment.

The update came as Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, warned Russia could face a revolution similar to that in 1917 unless the country’s elites get serious about the war.

He again criticised the military leadership, naming defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the defence staff Valery Gerasimov, saying they had ‘f**ked up’ repeatedly, leading to the loss of more men in the battle for Bakhmut than the entire 10-year war in Afghanistan.

Prigozhin said Soviet leader Josef Stalin would not have accepted such failure.

Mocking Vladimir Putin’s purpose for his ‘special military operation’, he said: ‘So the de-Nazification of Ukraine, which we announced – we made Ukraine a nation, known to everyone around the globe.

‘They are like Greeks at their peak, or Romans.’

In an interview with a prominent pro-war blogger posted on his Telegram channel, he went on: ‘We legitimised Ukraine, it became a country which is known to everyone.

‘As for de-militarisation, [this is] a painful issue indeed. So if they had at the start of it 500 tanks – now they have 5,000. If there were 20,000 men who were able to fight – now there are 400,000.

‘So how exactly did we demilitarise it? Quite the opposite! We militarised it up to the brim. 

‘I think Ukrainians today are one of the world’s strongest armies. They have high levels of organisation, training, military intelligence.

‘They have various ammunition and moreover, they are able to switch between any system – Soviet, NATO, anything at all  – with the same success. They take their losses philosophically. 

‘All they do is to achieve the supreme goal, just like us during the Great Patriotic War [Second World War].’

Prigozhin, left, is known as a close ally of Putin (Picture: AP)

Prigozhin lambasted the comfortable elites in Russia ‘shaking their arses’ in the sun while ordinary citizens get theirs back in zinc coffins, adding: ‘This divide can end as in 1917 with a revolution.

‘First the soldiers will stand up, and after that – their loved ones will rise up.

‘There are already tens of thousands of them – relatives of those killed. And there will probably be hundreds of thousands – we cannot avoid that.’

Russia needs to mobilise more men and to gear the economy exclusively to war, Prigozhin said.

He continued: ‘What must we do – not to lose Russia? Because today we are in a state when we can lose Russia.

‘We must introduce martial law. We must call new waves of mobilisation. We must switch everyone to production of weapons.

‘Stop building skyscrapers, new roads, new infrastructure – and work only for the war. We must live like in North Korea for several years, and shut the borders.’

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Yevgeny Prigozhin said: ‘I think Ukrainians today are one of the world’s strongest armies.’