On Saturday, the Russian army announced it will ‘ensure the protection’ of Wagner mercenaries who quit acting against the Russian government and its troops.
According to Deutsche Welle, Poland’monitors’ while the UK believes Russia is facing the most important threat in recent decades.’
According to Deutsche Welle, the Russian army declared on Saturday that it will “guarantee the safety” of Wagner mercenaries who quit fighting against the Russian government and military.
According to Deutsche Welle, the city of Moscow, the capital’s area, has proclaimed a counterterrorism state of emergency in the aftermath of Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin’s military insurrection.
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According to Reuters, rebellious Russian mercenary head, Yevgeny Prigozhin announced on Saturday that he had taken control of the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don as part of an attempt to topple the military leadership amid what the authorities described as an armed mutiny.
Prigozhin requested that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov, whom he has promised to depose for their poor handling of the war against Ukraine, come to meet him in Rostov, a city close to the Ukrainian border.
He had previously said that he had 25,000 warriors on their way to Moscow to “restore justice” and claimed, without giving proof, that the military had killed a large number of fighters from his Wagner private militia in an air attack, which the defence ministry rejected.
“Those who destroyed our lads, who took the lives of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, will be held accountable.” “I request that no one object…,” he stated in one of numerous frantic voice messages.
“There are 25,000 of us, and we are going to figure out why the country is in chaos,” he added, pledging to smash any roadblocks or air forces that stood in Wagner’s way.
Prigozhin, whose Wagner militia led the liberation of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut this month, has openly accused Shoigu and Gerasimov of ineptitude and of withholding Wagner weapons and help in its fights in Ukraine for months.
Rebellious Russian mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin announced on Saturday that he had taken control of the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don as part of an attempt to depose the military leadership during an armed mutiny, according to officials.
Prigozhin requested that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov, whom he has promised to depose for their poor handling of the war against Ukraine, come to meet him in Rostov, a city close to the Ukrainian border.
He had previously said that he had 25,000 warriors on their way to Moscow to “restore justice” and claimed, without giving proof, that the military had killed a large number of fighters from his Wagner private militia in an air attack, which the defence ministry rejected.
“Those who destroyed our lads, who took the lives of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, will be held accountable.” “I request that no one object…,” he stated in one of numerous frantic voice messages.
“There are 25,000 of us, and we are going to figure out why the country is in chaos,” he added, pledging to smash any roadblocks or air forces that stood in Wagner’s way.
Prigozhin, whose Wagner militia led the liberation of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut this month, has openly accused Shoigu and Gerasimov of ineptitude and of withholding Wagner weapons and help in its fights in Ukraine for months.
The rapid reversal, with many specifics unclear, appeared to be the worst internal problem President Vladimir Putin has faced since ordering a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which he referred to as a “special military operation” in February last year.
Putin was scheduled to address the country soon, according to the RIA news agency on Saturday.
The Russian FSB security service had already initiated a criminal investigation against Prigozhin for armed mutiny, claiming that his words were “calls for the start of an armed civil war on Russian territory and his actions a stab in the back’ of Russian servicemen fighting pro-fascist Ukrainian forces.”
“We urge the… fighters not to make irreversible mistakes, to stop any forcible actions against the Russian people, not to carry out Prigozhin’s criminal and traitorous orders, and to take measures to detain him,” it continued.
According to the Russian news agency TASS, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, all of Russia’s primary security services report to Putin “round the clock.”
Moscow’s security is being beefed up, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced on his Telegram channel.
According to a White House official, US President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation in Washington.
Prigozhin appeared to cross a new line in his increasingly scathing spat with the ministry on Friday, claiming that Putin’s claimed justification for invading Ukraine 16 months ago was based on falsehoods devised by the army’s senior brass.
“The war was needed… so that Shoigu could become a marshal… so that he could get a second ‘Hero’ [of Russia] medal,” Prigozhin stated in a video clip.
“The war was not necessary to demilitarise or denazify Ukraine,” he stated, alluding to Putin’s arguments for the conflict.
Prigozhin wrote a message on the Telegram app at about 2 a.m. (2300 GMT) saying his soldiers were in Rostov and ready to “go all the way” against the top brass and slaughter anybody who stopped in their way.
The government of the Voronezh area, on the M-4 motorway between the regional capital Rostov-on-Don and Moscow, reported on Telegram about 5 a.m. (0200 GMT) that a military convoy was on the route and encouraged locals not to use it.
Unverified social media images showed a procession of military vehicles on flatbed trucks, including at least one tank and one armoured vehicle. It was unclear where they were or whether the convoy’s covered vehicles carried combatants. Some of the cars had the Russian flag flying.
Footage from Rostov-on-Don-based networks showed armed soldiers in military dress walking through the city’s regional police headquarters, as well as tanks stationed outside the Southern Military District headquarters.
Reuters validated the locations but did not know when the footage was filmed.
Military Convoy
Prigozhin rejected any attempt to organise a military coup.
He claimed to have taken his men from Ukraine to Rostov, where a video uploaded by a pro-Wagner Telegram group showed him chatting with two generals at the headquarters of Russia’s vast Southern Military District.
“We have arrived here, we want to receive the chief of general staff and Shoigu,” he said in the video. Unless they arrive, we’ll be here, blockading Rostov and heading towards Moscow.”
That looked to be a reference to a military convoy attempting to drive 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) into Moscow, presumably to destabilise the military leadership.
Local officials in Russia confirmed the presence of a military convoy on the key highway connecting the southern part of European Russia with Moscow and cautioned citizens to avoid it.
Army Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseyev, who subsequently appeared alongside Prigozhin in the Rostov-on-Don film, delivered a video appeal pleading with Prigozhin to reconsider his conduct.
“Only the president has the authority to appoint top military leaders, and you are attempting to usurp his authority,” he stated.
Army General Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, whom Prigozhin has previously lauded, stated in a video that “the enemy is simply waiting for our internal political situation to deteriorate.”
“Before it is too late… you must submit to the will and order of the people’s president of the Russian Federation.” “Stop the columns and return them to their original locations,” he remarked.
An unsubstantiated video from a Wagner-related Telegram channel alleged to show the scene of an air attack against Wagner soldiers. It depicted a woodland with little fires blazing and trees that looked to have been smashed by force. There looked to be only one body, but no other obvious signs of an attack.
It was captioned, “A missile attack was launched on the PMC (Private Military Company) Wagner camps.” There were several casualties. The strike was delivered from behind, according to eyewitnesses, by the Russian Ministry of Defence’s military.”
