Armed men surround Rostov as Russian coup fears grow

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Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed his forces were “blockading” Rostov and marching towards Moscow on Saturday morning as armed, masked men with tanks and armored vehicles surrounded government buildings in the southern Russian city Was.

In what would be the first attempted coup in Russia in three decades, Prigozhin appears to have captured a key military headquarters in Rostov, where he is being confronted by a deputy defense minister and a The senior Russian general was filmed being attacked. ,

The extraordinary scenes were part of what Prigozhin called a “march of justice” against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Commander of Russia’s invasion forces Valery Gerasimov, with whom the notorious paramilitary group Wagner has been feuding for months over the handling of the Ukraine invasion. Is.

“We want (Gerasimov) and Shoigu. While they are here, we will stay, blockade Rostov and move on to Moscow,” Prigozhin told Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Deputy Chief of Russian Military Intelligence Vladimir Alekseyev. “We are saving Russia.”

In another video posted shortly after, Prigozhin said that Wagner controlled “the military facilities of Rostov, including the airport”, but was not obstructing the conduct of the invasion of Ukraine.

“We do it in such a way that attack aircraft attack Ukrainians, not us. The headquarters is functioning normally, not a single officer is out of work. If they tell you that Wagner interrupted the work and that’s why something fell in front – that’s not why something fell there,” Prigozhin said.

“Massive territories have been lost, the number of soldiers killed is three to four times higher than in the documents handed over, and 10 times higher than what is reported on TV.”

The scene unfolded at the army command center when Prigozhin said that Wagner fired on Russian armed forces and shot down three army helicopters.

At the height of Wagner’s months-long feud with the military, Russia’s security services took his statements with unprecedented seriousness. Russia’s main security service, the FSB, on Friday accused Prigozhin of organizing an armed rebellion, while two senior generals, who rarely speak publicly, called Wagner’s fighters a “state coup”. urged to withdraw.

Prigozhin’s stake appears to symbolize the collapse of a hybrid system in which a set of competing security forces fought on Russia’s side in Ukraine, often for conflicting purposes. The chaos follows months of public fighting between Wagner and the military as Russia continues its massive invasion of Ukraine.

Authorities in Rostov, a key command center overseeing President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, urged people to stay at home and avoid the city centre. Masked men have formed a barricade outside Russia’s southern military headquarters and several other security service buildings, according to several videos posted on local site 161.ru and local social media.

It was not immediately clear whether all the men were Wagner fighters or part of Russia’s regular armed forces, although photographs on state newswire Tass showed some of them were members of the paramilitary group.

Rostov Governor Vasily Golybaev wrote on social media that public transport routes would be changed “due to the current situation”, without specifying why.

Outside Rostov, there was little sign of Prigozhin’s army, which he said numbered 25,000, or any skirmishes with the Russian army.

There was no independent confirmation of any of Prigozhin’s statements, the footage indicating that Wagner currently has so much power, or any indication that he was involved in a firefight with the military.

But a governor in central Russia said a major highway to Moscow had been closed north of Rostov, while officials in the capital said “anti-terrorist operations” were underway.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was receiving regular updates on the situation and had given unspecified orders to his security services. As of 7 a.m. local time on Saturday, neither Putin nor any other senior Russian official had made any public comment on Prigozhin’s apparent rebellion.

Get free updates from the war in Ukraine

we will send you one myFT Daily Digest Latest Email Rounding war in ukraine News every morning.

Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed his forces were “blockading” Rostov and marching towards Moscow on Saturday morning as armed, masked men with tanks and armored vehicles surrounded government buildings in the southern Russian city Was.

In what would be the first attempted coup in Russia in three decades, Prigozhin appears to have captured a key military headquarters in Rostov, where he is being confronted by a deputy defense minister and a The senior Russian general was filmed being attacked. ,

The extraordinary scenes were part of what Prigozhin called a “march of justice” against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Commander of Russia’s invasion forces Valery Gerasimov, with whom the notorious paramilitary group Wagner has been feuding for months over the handling of the Ukraine invasion. Is.

“We want (Gerasimov) and Shoigu. While they are here, we will stay, blockade Rostov and move on to Moscow,” Prigozhin told Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Deputy Chief of Russian Military Intelligence Vladimir Alekseyev. “We are saving Russia.”

In another video posted shortly after, Prigozhin said that Wagner controlled “the military facilities of Rostov, including the airport”, but was not obstructing the conduct of the invasion of Ukraine.

“We do it in such a way that attack aircraft attack Ukrainians, not us. The headquarters is functioning normally, not a single officer is out of work. If they tell you that Wagner interrupted the work and that’s why something fell in front – that’s not why something fell there,” Prigozhin said.

“Massive territories have been lost, the number of soldiers killed is three to four times higher than in the documents handed over, and 10 times higher than what is reported on TV.”

The scene unfolded at the army command center when Prigozhin said that Wagner fired on Russian armed forces and shot down three army helicopters.

At the height of Wagner’s months-long feud with the military, Russia’s security services took his statements with unprecedented seriousness. Russia’s main security service, the FSB, on Friday accused Prigozhin of organizing an armed rebellion, while two senior generals, who rarely speak publicly, called Wagner’s fighters a “state coup”. urged to withdraw.

Prigozhin’s stake appears to symbolize the collapse of a hybrid system in which a set of competing security forces fought on Russia’s side in Ukraine, often for conflicting purposes. The chaos follows months of public fighting between Wagner and the military as Russia continues its massive invasion of Ukraine.

Authorities in Rostov, a key command center overseeing President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, urged people to stay at home and avoid the city centre. Masked men have formed a barricade outside Russia’s southern military headquarters and several other security service buildings, according to several videos posted on local site 161.ru and local social media.

It was not immediately clear whether all the men were Wagner fighters or part of Russia’s regular armed forces, although photographs on state newswire Tass showed some of them were members of the paramilitary group.

Rostov Governor Vasily Golybaev wrote on social media that public transport routes would be changed “due to the current situation”, without specifying why.

Outside Rostov, there was little sign of Prigozhin’s army, which he said numbered 25,000, or any skirmishes with the Russian army.

There was no independent confirmation of any of Prigozhin’s statements, the footage indicating that Wagner currently has so much power, or any indication that he was involved in a firefight with the military.

But a governor in central Russia said a major highway to Moscow had been closed north of Rostov, while officials in the capital said “anti-terrorist operations” were underway.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was receiving regular updates on the situation and had given unspecified orders to his security services. As of 7 a.m. local time on Saturday, neither Putin nor any other senior Russian official had made any public comment on Prigozhin’s apparent rebellion.