MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to crush what he called an armed mutiny after rebellious mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday he had taken control of a southern city as part of an attempt to oust the military leadership.
The dramatic turn, with many details unclear, looked like the biggest domestic crisis Putin has faced since he ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine — something he called a “special military operation” — in February last year.
In a televised address, Putin said that “excessive ambitions and vested interests have led to treason”, and called the mutiny a “stab in the back”.
“This is a stab in a back to our country, to our nation,” Putin said in an address to the nation. “What we have been faced with is exactly betrayal.
“It is a blow to Russia, to our people. And our actions to defend the Fatherland against such a threat will be harsh.
“All those who deliberately stepped on the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed insurrection, who took the path of blackmail and terrorist methods, will suffer inevitable punishment, will answer both to the law and to our people,” Putin said.
He acknowledged a “difficult” situation was unfolding in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where the Wagner mercenary group has taken control of key military sites in an effort to oust Russian military’s top brass.
“There will be decisive measures taken on stabilising the situation in Rostov-on-Don,” Putin said in an address to Russians. “It remains difficult and the work of civil and military authorities in fact is being blocked. “
25,000 fighters would ‘restore justice’, says Prigozhin
Prigozhin had demanded that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff, whom he has pledged to oust over what he says is their disastrous leadership of the war against Ukraine, come to see him in Rostov — a city near the Ukrainian border that he said he had seized control of.
He had said he had 25,000 fighters who would “restore justice” and had alleged, without providing evidence, that the military had killed a huge number of fighters from his Wagner private militia in an air strike, something the defence ministry denied.
“Those who destroyed our lads, who destroyed the lives of many tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, will be punished. I ask that no one offer resistance…,” he said in one of many frenzied audio messages.
“There are 25,000 of us and we are going to figure out why chaos is happening in the country,” he said, promising to destroy any checkpoints or air forces that got in Wagner’s way.
Prigozhin’s Wagner militia spearheaded the capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut last month, and he has for months been openly accusing Shoigu and Gerasimov of incompetence and of denying Wagner ammunition and support.
Russia’s FSB security had earlier opened a criminal case against Prigozhin for armed mutiny and had said that his statements were “calls for the start of an armed civil conflict on Russian territory and his actions a ‘stab in the back’ of Russian servicemen fighting pro-fascist Ukrainian forces”.
It added: “We urge the … fighters not to make irreparable mistakes, to stop any forcible actions against the Russian people, not to carry out the criminal and traitorous orders of Prigozhin, to take measures to detain him.”
The state news agency TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that all of Russia’s main security services were reporting to Putin “round the clock”.
Security was being tightened in Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel.
In Washington, US President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation, a White House spokesperson said.
On Friday, Prigozhin had appeared to cross a new line in his increasingly vitriolic feud with the ministry, saying that Putin’s stated rationale for invading Ukraine 16 months ago was based on lies concocted by the army’s top brass.
“The war was needed … so that Shoigu could become a marshal … so that he could get a second ‘Hero’ [of Russia] medal,” Prigozhin said in a video clip.
“The war wasn’t needed to demilitarise or denazify Ukraine,” he said, referring to Putin’s justifications for the war.
At about 2am (11pm GMT), Prigozhin posted a message on the Telegram app saying his forces were in Rostov and ready to “go all the way” against the top brass and destroy anyone who stood in their way.
At about 5am (2am GMT), the administration of the Voronezh region, on the M-4 motorway between the regional capital Rostov-on-Don and Moscow, said on Telegram that a military convoy was on the highway and urged residents to avoid using it.
Unverified footage posted on social media showed a convoy of assorted military vehicles, including at least one tank and one armoured vehicle on flatbed trucks.
It was not clear where they were, or whether the covered trucks in the convoy contained fighters. Some of the vehicles were flying the Russian flag.
Footage on channels based in Rostov-on-Don showed armed men in military uniform skirting the regional police headquarters in the city on foot, as well as tanks positioned outside the headquarters of the Southern Military District.
Reuters confirmed the locations shown but could not determine when the footage was shot.
UK says Russia facing greatest challenge of recent times
Separately, Britain’s defence ministry said on Saturday that the Russian state was facing its greatest security challenge of recent times, following what it said appeared to be a move by Wagner Group forces towards Moscow.
“Over the coming hours, the loyalty of Russia’s security forces, and especially the Russian National Guard, will be key to how this crisis plays out. This represents the most significant challenge to the Russian state in recent times,” Britain’s defence ministry said in a regular intelligence update.
Military Convoy
Prigozhin denied that he was trying to stage a military coup.
He said he had led his fighters out of Ukraine to Rostov, where a video posted by a pro-Wagner Telegram channel showed him, seemingly relaxed, conversing with two generals at the headquarters of Russia’s huge Southern Military District.
The video showed him telling the generals: “We have arrived here, we want to receive the chief of the general staff and Shoigu. Unless they come, we’ll be here, we’ll blockade the city of Rostov and head for Moscow.”
That appeared to be a reference to a military convoy trying to make a 1,200-km drive towards Moscow, ostensibly to topple the military leadership.
Russian local officials said a military convoy was indeed on the main motorway linking the southern part of European Russia with Moscow, and warned residents to avoid it.
Army Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseyev — who was later to appear with Prigozhin in the video from Rostov-on-Don — issued a video appeal asking Prigozhin to reconsider his actions.
“Only the president has the right to appoint the top leadership of the armed forces, and you are trying to encroach on his authority,” he said.
Army General Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, whom Prigozhin has praised in the past, said in a video that “the enemy is just 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 permanent bases,” he said.
An unverified video on a Telegram channel close to Wagner showed the purported scene of an air strike against Wagner forces.
It showed a forest where small fires were burning and trees appeared to have been broken by force. There appeared to be one body, but no more direct evidence of any attack.
It carried the caption: “A missile attack was launched on the camps of PMC (Private Military Company) Wagner. Many victims. According to eyewitnesses, the strike was delivered from the rear, that is, it was delivered by the military of the Russian Ministry of Defence.”
Russia’s anti-terrorist committee said it was imposing a counter-terrorist regime in Moscow and the surrounding region amid an apparent mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group, RIA reported.
A police car is seen behind a barrier on the Red Square in central Moscow, Russia on June 24. — Reuters
Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement addressed to Wagner Group mercenary fighters that they had been “deceived and dragged into a criminal adventure” by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
In a statement posted on Telegram, the ministry urged Wagner fighters to contact its representatives and those of law enforcement services, and promised to guarantee their security.
Three killed in latest Russian air strike on Ukraine
Meanwhile, at least three people were killed early on Saturday after Russia unleashed its latest overnight air strike on Ukraine, officials said.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said missiles had targeted at least five regions across the country and that three people were killed and eight wounded after a high-rise in the capital Kyiv was struck.
“This is the style of terrorists. The style of Russia,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
A view of an apartment building damaged during Russian missile strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 24. — Reuters
In a separate post, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said the damage had been caused by fragments from a downed missile and that air defences had shot down more than 20 missiles around the city.
Emergency workers on Saturday morning were sifting through debris at the scene, where a gaping hole was visible on one side of the building.
Officials in the southeastern region of Dnipropetrovsk said eight people were wounded — two of them children — and several buildings were destroyed in attacks there.
Governor Serhiy Lysak said air defences had destroyed nine missiles and three drones but that residential buildings in the regional capital Dnipro and an unspecified infrastructure object were hit.
“Not a single military target,” Mayor Borys Filatov wrote separately on Telegram.
At least three Russian missiles also targeted Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, with one hitting a gas line and triggering a fire, said Mayor Ihor Terekhov. He said emergency services were at the scene but gave no details on casualties.
There were reports of explosions in other cities but no indication of casualties or damage.
Moscow began stepping up regular air strikes on Ukraine in May as Kyiv’s military was planning a counteroffensive, which is now ongoing, to retake Russian-occupied territory in the east and south.
