On the way to Moscow, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenary militia also reached Voronezh on Saturday, which is halfway between Rostov-on-Don in the south and the Russian capital. According to Russian security circles, Wagner fighters have already brought military facilities under control. There is still a lot of resistance. Russian helicopters opened fire on a convoy of Wagner troops in the area, eyewitnesses said.
The governor of Voronezh, Alexander Gusev, confirmed fighting and spoke of an “anti-terrorist operation” by the authorities. He declared a state of emergency for Voronezh and bus services were stopped. The city with almost 900,000 inhabitants is one of the largest cities in the European part of Russia.
Cloud of smoke from a burning oil storage facility in Voronosch visible from afar
(Photo: IMAGO/Stringer/IMAGO/ITAR-TASS)
The explosion at an oil storage facility on Saturday in Voronezh’s Dmitrova Street shows just how tense and dramatic the situation is. Amateur footage circulating via Telegram shows a fireball and a massive plume of black smoke. “Mama, Mama, I’m scared,” cries a child who, together with his mother, looks out of the apartment window as a helicopter flies by at a low altitude and shortly afterwards the explosion can be heard and seen. Then the child starts crying, the recording ends. According to a report by the independent media site Meduza the oil depot of the company “Red Banner” was hit. More than a hundred firefighters are on duty.
support for Putin
A resident of Voronezh wrote in an email to the Southgerman newspaperthat soldiers in tanks were on their way to the city. He reported both “panic” in the city and “public life going on” and people taking walks in parks. There is no way to leave the city.
A huge plume of black smoke over a burning oil storage facility in Voronezh
(Photo: IMAGO/Yelena Ruzanova/IMAGO/ITAR-TASS)
Prigozhin does not get official support for his uprising in Voronezh. Governor Gusev said in a speech that there was no justification for mutiny and that he supported President Vladimir Putin. He called on the population of the big city not to be provoked and to support the supreme commander and the entire Russian army.
Other officials in the city and in the Voronezh region have also spoken out unequivocally against Prigozhin’s military uprising and have not taken the situation as an opportunity to question Putin and the war of aggression against Ukraine. On the contrary: at least this Saturday, leading doctors and members of the regional Duma and the public assembly are gathering behind the Russian president.