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June 24 () –
Wagner’s leader, Yevgeni Prigozhin, announced this Saturday that his group has crossed the Russian border and “are entering” the city of Rostov, in the south of the country.
“Now we are entering Rostov. The divisions of the Ministry of Defense, or rather, the recruits, who were thrown to block our path, stepped aside,” Prigozhin has published in an audio on his Telegram account collected by the portal from Meduza news.
He added that “we do not kill children, children are killed by (Defense Minister Sergei) Shoigu, sending untrained soldiers, including conscripts, into the war. We fight only with professionals.”
“If someone gets in our way, we will destroy everyone,” Prigozhin has settled.
It all started this Friday when the mercenary organization denounced on its Telegram channel that “a missile attack against Wagner training camps” had been launched and that it had left “many victims.” “The coup has been delivered (…) by soldiers from the Russian Ministry of Defense,” the message highlights.
The Wagner Group has warned that it has up to 25,000 paramilitaries in its ranks and that they are going to “find out why this chaos is happening,” which they say “is true.” “All those who want can join. We must put an end to this disgrace,” the organization said, adding that it is necessary to “stop evil” within the Russian military leadership.
In addition, Wagner has promised to “arrest” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whom he accuses of having fled to Rostov to carry out an armed attack from there against the paramilitary group. “This is not a military coup. This is a march for justice”, he has settled.
Later, the general of the Russian Armed Forces, Sergei Surovikin, called on Wagner’s paramilitaries not to pay attention to Prigozhin’s provocations, who would be encouraging a kind of military coup.
“The accusations spread on behalf of Yevgeny Prigozhin are groundless. In connection with these statements, the Russian Federal Security Service has opened a criminal case for calling for an armed rebellion,” the National Anti-Terrorist Committee reported, according to has picked up the TASS news agency.
The Russian Criminal Code punishes armed rebellion, which seeks to “overthrow or forcibly change the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, as well as violate the territorial integrity” of Moscow, with prison terms of between 12 and 20 years.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s press secretary has reported that Russian Federation Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov has submitted a report to Putin in the context of initiating a criminal case against Prigozhin for an attempt to organize an armed rebellion. and has explained to him about the legality of legal actions
TENSION IN ROSTOV
Following threats from Wagner’s leader of a possible military coup against Moscow, several local media outlets have released images showing military vehicles in the center of the city of Rostov, where Shoigu is apparently located, although this information for the time being It is not official, it has been collected by the newspaper ‘The Moscow Times’.
A correspondent for the TASS news agency has reported that the movement of vehicles is currently blocked on the M-4 highway in the direction of the town of Aksai north of Rostov.
The flow of traffic is heading back to the city and there is a notable increase in police posts, as explained by this same correspondent.
Several Telegram channels also publish that Russia has put its troops on alert and that border controls have been strengthened with the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, as reported by the Meduza news portal.
Likewise, the Russian security forces have begun to block and cut off streets in Rostov, where the military presence is apparently being reinforced, and a plan called ‘Fortress’ would be underway, although the information is unclear at the moment.
