According to their boss, Prigozhin, Wagner mercenaries invaded Russian territory. Accordingly, they should be in front of the city of Rostov, he claims. Anyone who stood in the way of his army would be destroyed, Prigozhin threatened.
The conflict between the Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and the military leadership in the Kremlin, which has been smoldering for months, has escalated: according to Prigozhin, fighters from Prigozhin’s mercenary group Wagner have crossed the border from Ukraine to Russia and invaded. Prigozhin said his fighters had moved into the Rostov region in southern Russia.
He did not provide any evidence for his statements, and the AFP news agency was initially unable to verify their truthfulness. Local media reported in the city of Rostov-on-Don that a base of the Wagner private army had been operating there for a long time. So the mercenaries are already there.
The governor there did not say whether Prigozhin had arrived, but called on residents to stay in their homes. Rostov is the Russian military headquarters for the southern region, which also monitors the fighting in Ukraine.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Prigozhin: Will fight to the end
Prigozhin himself said that the Wagner troops had been greeted by border guards as they approached the town and were now going to Rostov. At the checkpoints, the Wagner soldiers encountered young conscripts who offered no resistance. He added that his forces “do not fight children”. “But we will destroy anyone who stands in our way,” he said. “We are advancing and will fight to the end.” They would also march further than Rostov.
Responding to calls by Russian investigators to arrest him, Prigozhin said there was a brotherhood between his troops. They are not traitors. Prigozhin also claimed that the General Staff in Moscow ordered the Russian Air Force to fire on the Wagner columns. The pilots refused, he said. There was no information from the official Russian side.
FSB calls mercenaries to arrest
On Friday evening, Prigozhin accused the military leadership of attacking one of his mercenary troops’ camps in the rear, killing many of his men. He threatened countermeasures and called on the Russians to rebel against the army leadership. The Russian prosecutor’s office began investigations into “armed insurrection”. According to the Attorney General’s Office, the 61-year-old faces between 12 and 20 years in prison. He is wanted by the Russian domestic secret service FSB.
Prigozhin has called for a fight against Moscow’s military leadership, according to the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which includes almost all other Russian security agencies in addition to the FSB. The FSB then called on the Wagner troops to disobey Prigozhin’s “criminal” and “treacherous” orders and to take steps to arrest him.
Armored personnel carriers in front of the Duma
Russian state television broadcast a special news program that night, reporting that Prigozhin had fallen from grace and was to be arrested. The talk on the show was about a “provocation” by Prigozhin for the benefit of Ukraine.
In the course of the confrontation, the important Russian army general Sergey Surovikin sided with the power apparatus in Moscow. Surovikin, who is deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, called on Prigozhin in a video message to end the power struggle. Surovikin is actually considered an ally of Prigozhin, but apparently decided to remain loyal to the Kremlin.
According to state media, all important objects in the Russian capital were under special control. Videos had previously appeared online showing an infantry fighting vehicle and an armored military truck driving in front of the Russian parliament, the State Duma.
USA want to coordinate with partners
The US government was closely monitoring developments, according to a spokesman. “We are monitoring the situation and will coordinate these developments with allies and partners,” said a spokesman for the National Security Council. President Joe Biden is informed. Rival Russian troops are in the process of “tearing each other apart in the struggle for power and money,” commented the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov.