Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin accused of trying to stage coup as he claims to control parts of Russia's military headquarters   

Jun 07, 2023

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Forces from Wagner Group, the private military contractor that had been fighting for the Kremlin in Ukraine, have reportedly crossed the border and stormed back into Russia, demanding the removal of the nation’s defense minister in the most serious threat to President Vladimir Putin’s authority since he took power in 2000.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner and founder of the mercenary organization, is calling for an armed rebellion and threatened to rush Moscow in order to oust the minister who he accused of ordering the bombing of his war camps in Ukraine. The Kremlin has called for his arrest on mutiny charges in response.

On Saturday, Prigozhin said his 25,000 soldiers had stormed into Rostov-on-Don — home to the Russian military headquarters for the southern region that oversees the fighting in Ukraine, close to where the Wagner forces had been deployed.

He claimed that his forces had taken control of the city’s military facilities, including the airfield, as military tanks rolled through the streets of Rostov-on-Don, according to videos posted online.

The mercenary leader said his troops faced no resistance from young conscripts at checkpoints.

His forces “aren’t fighting against children,” he said.

“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 a recording of one of his notorious tirades.

“There are 25,000 of us, and we are going to figure out why chaos is happening in the country,” he said, promising to tackle any checkpoints or air forces that got in Wagner’s way.

“We will consider anyone who tries to resist a threat and quickly destroy them,” he said.

Putin has been made aware of the situation and “all the necessary measures were being taken,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Putin called the situation a “stab in the back” during his five-minute address to the nation on Saturday.

“Actions that divide our unity are in essence defeatism before one’s own people,” Putin said. “This is a stab in the back of our country and our people.”

“This is a criminal adventuristic campaign. It is equivalent to armed mutiny. Russia will defend itself.”

Video showed tanks, allegedly belonging to Wagner, roll into Rostov-on-Don, a city of about 1.1 million people about 1,000 miles from Moscow, with its guns pointed at the Russian Southern Military Headquarters.

Armed soldiers can be seen with their guns drawn surrounding and entering the vitally important military building, another clip shows.

Prigozhin posted his own video demanding Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of the General Staff, come meet him at the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don — and threatening to storm Moscow if they didn’t.

“We have arrived here, we want to receive the chief of the general staff and Shoigu,” he said in the video shared by his press service. “Unless they come, we’ll be here — we’ll blockade the city of Rostov and head for Moscow.”

Earlier, footage circulating online showed large trucks blocking highways leading to Rostov-on-Don. Convoys of National Guard trucks were seen on a road outside, while tanks were driving down city streets.

Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenary fighting force will not face charges and will instead be exiled despite leading an armed insurrection against Moscow on Saturday, the Kremlin said.

Prigozhin, owner and founder of the mercenary organization, called for an armed rebellion and threatened to rush Moscow in order to oust the official whom he accused of ordering the bombing of his war camps in Ukraine.

However, Prigozhin eventually agreed to halt the Wagner Group’s advance on Moscow just 120 miles from the capital after a day-long negotiation the mercenary leader had with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was given permission to broker a deal with Progozhin by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin’s presidential plane left Moscow early Saturday, sparking rumors that he had fled the Russian capital as the Wagner Group’s forces advanced on the city.

The president’s aircraft was spotted on flight radar flying northwest from Moscow to the St. Petersburg area — but then disappeared from the system near the city of Tver, the BBC reported, where Putin owns a large rural retreat.

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The area’s governor urged residents to remain calm and in their homes.

“The law enforcement authorities are doing everything necessary to assure the safety of the region’s residents,” Rostov Gov. Vasily Golubev said on Telegram at around 4 a.m. local time, according to the New York Times.

“I’m asking everyone to stay calm and not leave their home without necessity.”

Prigozhin claimed Gerasimov ordered warplanes to attack Wagner’s convoys, which were driving alongside ordinary vehicles.

He also said that his forces shot down a Russian military helicopter that fired on a civilian convoy, but that has not been confirmed.

Prigozhin posted a series of video and audio recordings online in which he claimed Shoigu and Gerasimov launched a rocket, helicopter and artillery attack against his camp, killing 2,000 soldiers who were fighting on Russia’s behalf in its war against Ukraine.

Earlier on Friday, he accused Shoigu of leading Russia into war under false pretenses as the months-long war of words between the two has led to open conflict.

This war wasn’t needed to return Russian citizens to our bosom, nor to demilitarize or denazify Ukraine. The war was needed so that a bunch of animals could simply exult in glory,” he said, according to the New York Times report.

Prigozhin said his mercenaries would now punish Shoigu in an armed rebellion and urged the army not to offer resistance.

“The evil that the military leadership of the country brings forward must be stopped. They have forgotten the word ‘justice,’ and we will return it,” Prigozhin said in an audio recording posted on Wagner’s social media Friday, according to the Journal.

“Anyone attempting resistance will be considered a threat and immediately destroyed. This includes all the checkpoints on our path and any aircraft above our heads.”

The Ministry of Defense in Moscow has denied his claims about the attack. The National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which is part of the Federal Security Services, or FSB, has opened a criminal investigation into Prigozhin on charges of inciting an armed rebellion, state media reported.

Russian generals accused the outspoken Prigozhin of attempting to mount an armed coup against Putin, according to the Times.

“This is not a military coup, but a march of justice,” Prigozhin declared.

Mick Mulroy, a retired C.I.A. officer and former Pentagon official, told The Times that Prigozhin, if successful, may force Putin to redirect the military from Ukraine — where Ukrainian forces have launched a counteroffensive — to back home.

“Even if this attempted coup fails, it emphatically makes the point that those closest to this war know it was a terrible mistake,” Mulroy told the paper.

Russia’s Deputy Commander of Russian joint forces, Sergey Surovikin, called on Wagner to stop and resolve the situation peacefully.

“I urge you to stop. The enemy is waiting for our internal political situation to escalate. We must not play in the enemy’s favor in this difficult time,” he said, according to Tass.

“We have together come a difficult way, we were fighting together, risking, suffering casualties, we were winning together. We are of [the] same blood, we are fighters,” he added.

The FSB urged Wagner’s soldiers to arrest Prigozhin on mutiny charges and refuse to follow his “criminal and treacherous orders.” It called his statements a “stab in the back to Russian troops” and said they amounted to fomenting an armed conflict in Russia.

Russia’s chief prosecutor said the criminal investigation was justified and that an armed rebellion charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Since Russia launched its war in Ukraine 16 months ago, Wagner’s forces have been among the most successful even as Russia’s invasion has largely been stalled by Ukraine’s defense forces, backed by Western allies.

Wagner troops successfully took the city of Bakhmut, where some of the most grueling and bloodiest fighting of the war took place. It was the only advance made by Russia last year.

Its forces are largely made of convicts Prigozhin recruited from Russian prisons, with the promise of a pardon in exchange for six months of service on the Ukrainian front lines.

Roughly 10,000 Wagner troops were killed during the battle for Bakhmut — half of all the Russian soldiers killed since December.

Prigozhin has been critical of Russia’s military brass since it was hired to fight, accusing leaders of incompetence and of starving his troops of weapons and ammunition.

His feud with Shoigu dates back years.

His words on Friday, however, were a direct challenge.

The Russian Defense Ministry required all military contractors to sign contracts with it before July 1, but Prigozhin refused to comply.

Prigozhin said in a statement Friday he was willing to find a compromise with the Defense Ministry, but “they have treacherously cheated us.”

“Today they carried out a rocket strike on our rear camps, and a huge number of our comrades got killed,” he said.

Prigozhin claimed that Shoigu went to the Russian military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don personally to direct the strike on Wagner and then “cowardly” fled.

“This scum will be stopped,” he said, in reference to Shoigu.

President Biden and the US are “monitoring the situation and will be consulting with allies and partners on these developments,” National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge said, according to the Journal.

With Post wires