While the Wagner group rehearses the uprising, Russian bombers fire on Kiev. But there is hope: mercenaries who had been shooting at their compatriots just hours before are suddenly driving in the direction of Moscow. In the end, there was no revolution in Russia – in Kiev people still party late into the night.
By Moritz Gathmann
On the day that Wagner’s private army, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, marched into Rostov-on-Don with tanks, most residents of Kiev were in a celebratory mood. People in buses and bars stare at their mobile phone screens in disbelief, follow their own Telegram channels, but also those of the Russian war propagandists, whose news is becoming more hysterical by the hour: Wagner troops are shooting down Russian helicopters and planes, but the army leadership is letting them down block the bridges leading to Moscow from the south with dump trucks. In addition, the channels are overflowing with fake news, such as that ex-president Dmitry Medvedev has already left the country with his family.