The head of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said today that he made a statement in absentia against the Russian Ministry of Defense. To take control of the General Staff of the Russian forces in the city. Rostov, in the south of the country. “We are at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, checking Rostov military facilities, including the airport, at 07:30 Moscow time (04:30 GMT),” he said in a video posted on his Telegram account.
“Airplanes normally take off for combat missions. Medical aviation also takes off. There’s no problem. All we do is stop the attack aviation from bombing us and have it bomb the Ukrainians.” “The main command is functioning normally, there is no problem, not a single officer has left[his post]. That’s why if they tell you that Wagner was interfering with the job and that’s why something collapsed on the front, it’s him. It wasn’t for that,” he said.
“We confirmed a lot of things when we got here. Massive loss of territory, dead soldiers, three to four times more than stated in the documents (to the Russian Presidency) and ten times less reported than what was reported on television‘ he denounced.
According to Prigozhin, on some days the losses amount to a thousand, among them “the dead, the missing, the wounded, and the so-called ‘defectors’ who refuse to fight not because they are frightened, but because there is no other way out: they have no ammunition, they have no orders”. When the Chief of Staff realized that we were approaching the building, he fled.
Earlier, another Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel published a video of Prigozhin’s meeting in Rostov-on-Don with Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Evkurov and Deputy Chief of General Staff Vladimir Alexeeev. Prigozhin announced that his mercenaries would “blockade the city of Rostov” and “advance towards Moscow,” unless Wagner “held the Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.”
Armored vehicles and armed men in the streets
They are seen on the streets of Rostov at this hour armored vehicles and armed men the surrounding administrative buildings, according to local media, but Prigozhin has not yet confirmed whether he has taken any of his men.
He said he had 25,000 men with him the day before, and this morning he assured him in another voicemail that between 60 and 70 people had joined the group.
Regional governor Vasily Golubev, who asked questions to citizens do not leave their homes unnecessarilyannounced this Saturday the cancellation of all public events and changes in the routes of the transport service.
While Prigozhin denied the coup attempt, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office filed a lawsuit against him for “organizing an armed riot”, which could carry a prison sentence of 12 to 20 years.
counter-terrorism measures
Faced with the Wagners’ declaration of rebellion, Russia took counter-terrorism measures in the capital and the Moscow region. “Concerning the incoming information, they are receiving it in Moscow. counter-terrorism measures aimed at strengthening security measures“, said the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, on the Telegram channel.
The capital’s councilor announced that they are holding an additional check on the roads and warned that it is possible to limit the holding of public events.
“Security measures have been strengthened in the Moscow region, the situation is controlled by law enforcement and the Federal Security Service (FSB),” state governor Andrei Vorobyov said in the same messaging app.