Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that treason against his rule threatens Russia with civil war, as Moscow’s military launched an operation to tackle a revolt by the Wagner mercenary group.
The rapidly escalating events mark the most serious challenge yet to the Kremlin chief’s long rule, and Russia’s most serious security crisis since the he came to power in late 1999.
Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, once a close Putin ally, said his troops had taken control of the military command center and bases in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, the nerve center of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, and vowed to topple Moscow’s top military leaders.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“We got to Rostov. Without a single shot we captured the building of the [army] HQ,” Prigozhin said in an audio message on Telegram.
He said the mercenaries “had not touched a single soldier, we did not kill a single person on our way,” adding that his men had been hit by strikes from “artillery and after that from helicopters.”
Further north, on Wagner’s possible route toward Moscow, the governor of Russia’s Voronezh region said the armed forces had launched a “counterterrorist operation” to suppress the revolt.
Photo: Reuters
A fuel depot on Voronezh city was on fire, he said.
The Russian Federal Security Service accused Prigozhin of attempting to launch a “civil conflict” and urged Wagner fighters to detain him.
Responding to the challenge in a televised address, Putin accused Prighozin — whose private army provided shock troops for Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine — of a “stab in the back” that posed a threat to Russia’s very survival.
Photo: Reuters
“Any internal turmoil is a deadly threat to our statehood and to us as a nation. This is a blow to Russia and to our people,” Putin said. “This battle, when the fate of our people is being decided, requires the unification of all forces.”
“Extravagant ambitions and personal interests led to treason,” Putin said, referring to Prigozhin, who built his powerbase as a catering contractor to the Kremlin and now runs a private military force.
“All those who consciously stood on the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed rebellion, stood on the path of blackmail and terrorist methods, will suffer inevitable punishment, before the law and before our people,” Putin said.
Photo: AFP / Telegram channel of Concord group
The Russian president’s speech came shortly after Prigozhin posted a message, apparently filmed in Rostov-on-Don, accusing the Russian military leadership of betrayal and failure in the battle against Ukrainian forces.
“A huge amount of territory is lost. Soldiers have been killed, three, four times more than what it says in documents shown to the top,” he said, accusing commanders of hiding the true scale of Russian losses in Ukraine from the Kremlin.
“Military sites in Rostov, including an aerodrome, are under control,” he said, adding that warplanes taking part in the Ukraine offensive “are leaving as normal.”
“On treason of the motherland: the president is deeply wrong. We are patriots of our motherland,” Prigozhin said.
The mayor of Moscow announced that “anti-terrorist” measures were being taken in the capital, and authorities said security had been tightened in several regions.
Inside Ukraine, emergency services said that three people were killed and nearly a dozen injured in Kyiv after what authorities said was an overnight barrage of 40 Russian cruise missiles and at least two attack drones.
Watching events unfold in Russia as his own forces conduct a slow-moving counteroffensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the revolt showed Russia’s was failing.
“Russia’s weakness is obvious. Full-scale weakness,” he said. “And the longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain, and problems it will have for itself later. It is also obvious, that Ukraine is able to protect Europe from the spread of Russian evil and chaos.”
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