Russian Military Brass Facing Coup Attempt By Private Mercenary Corp Wagner

There are breaking reports that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has finally completely broken off relations with the Russian military, and essentially "declared war" on the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD).

According to a prominent translator who has examined freshly released audio of Prigozhin's fiery message on Telegram, the Wagner leader begins with: "PMC Wagner Commanders’ Council made a decision: the evil brought by the military leadership of the country must be stopped. They neglect the lives of soldiers. They forgot the word “justice”, and we will bring it back."

The Kremlin has accused the leader of the Wagner mercenary group of attempting an “armed coup” against Russia.

In an extraordinary announcement on Friday night, Yevgeny Prigozhin called for an uprising against Russia’s military leaders.

The Wagner boss claimed his troops have marched into Russia’s Rostov region and promised that his soldiers would “destroy everything that gets in the way”.

Vladimir Putin has just told the nation he will “harshly” punish Prigozhin and called the mutiny a “stab in the back”. Here is everything we know so far.

There are now widespread reports and circulating footage of additional armored vehicles deployed by military police units in key parts of Russia, including in Moscow and Rostov regions, with TASS saying they have been ordered to protect government buildings, as speculation that Wagner's Prigozhin is making real moves against Russian leadership tonight. 

The Washington Post is meanwhile recapping the following of reports that authorities are seeking his arrest:

Russia’s Federal Security Service late Friday announced a criminal case against Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin, accusing him of “incitement to armed rebellion” after he declared an open conflict with Russia’s military leadership and called on Russians to join 25,000 Wagner fighters against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other top commanders.

On Saturday morning, a video appeared on Telegram that appears to show “negotiations” between Yevgeny Prigozhin, Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and Deputy Chief of Staff Vladimir Alexeyev at the Southern Military District’s headquarters in Rostov-on-Don. The previous evening, Prigozhin accused the Russian Defense Ministry of carrying out a missile attack on a Wagner Group camp and announced his units were setting out on a “march of justice” against Russia’s military leadership. Overnight, Wagner fighters cordoned off multiple military and administrative buildings in Rostov-on-Don. Meduza is publishing a transcript of the conversation between Prigozhin, Yevkurov, and Alexeyev heard in the video.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has said that Vladimir Putin was “deeply mistaken” to call him and his forces traitors, telling the leader that he and his men would not surrender.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/wagner-chief-declares-full-coup-against-russian-defense-ministry
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/24/russia-ukraine-coup-wagner-kremlin-yevgeny-prigozhin/
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fworld-news%2F2023%2F06%2F24%2Frussia-ukraine-coup-wagner-putin-kremlin-prigozhin%2F
https://meduza.io/en/live/2023/06/23/yevgeny-prigozhin-s-coup
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/06/24/we-re-saving-russia