The leader of the paramilitary group Wagner called on his troops on Saturday to stop their march towards Moscow, operating a spectacular about-face after defying the authority of Vladimir Putin who had warned of the risk of “civil war”, while Kiev claimed advances to the east of its territory.
To prevent “Russian blood” from flowing, “our columns are turning around and we are going in the opposite direction to return to the camps”, declared the tempestuous Yevgeny Prigojine after launching an unprecedented coup against the Kremlin on Friday evening. to “liberate the Russian people”.
His troops approached on Saturday less than 400 km from the capital after having notably claimed the capture of the headquarters of the Russian army in Rostov (west), the nerve center of operations in Ukraine.
Faced with his greatest challenge since coming to power at the end of 1999, President Putin denounced “treason” and warned against “civil war”. The Kremlin also urged Western countries not to try to “take advantage of the internal situation in Russia to achieve their Russophobic goals”. “All the objectives of the special military operation (in Ukraine) will be achieved,” the Foreign Ministry said.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, Wagner’s rebellion shows that “the Russian leadership has no control over anything”. “The Kremlin man is obviously very scared and probably hiding somewhere,” he said.
His army claimed on Saturday “advances in all directions” on the eastern front where it claims to have launched new offensives.
The advance in Russia of the troops of Wagner led to the authorities to take exceptional security measures.
The mayor of Moscow called on residents to limit travel in the city, describing the situation as “difficult” and declared Monday a non-working day. “I read the news this morning, I was very surprised. I don’t know how to react to it,” Elena, a 35-year-old from Muscovite, told AFP.
The Russian region of Kaluga, whose regional capital is 180 km south of Moscow, has introduced travel restrictions in the face of the rebellion.
Since the announcement of the Wagner Group’s rebellion on Friday night, their forces have been spotted in three Russian regions: Rostov, Voronezh and Lipetsk.
From Washington to Paris via Brussels, all Western chancelleries are monitoring the development of the situation in Russia very closely. US President Joe Biden met on Saturday with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, and with the heads of the German and British governments, Olaf Scholz and Rishi Sunak.
During this conversation, the French head of state mentioned a “possible impact” of this coup on the war in Ukraine.
A close ally of Vladimir Putin, the Belarusian president, for his part, claimed to have obtained from the head of Wagner the cessation of the movements of the troops of the paramilitary group in Russia.
“Evgeny Prigozhin has accepted the proposal of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to stop the movements of the armed men of the Wagner society and measures for a de-escalation of tensions”, indicated the unofficial Telegram channel of the Belarusian presidency, Poul Pervogo.
According to the “Rybar” channel, Chechen regiments had been dispatched by the strongman of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov to put down the mutiny “in the areas of tension” in Russia, on the outskirts of Rostov. AFP was unable to independently verify this information.
Saturday morning in an address to the Nation, Vladimir Putin, in a black suit, with a serious air and a martial tone, attacked without naming him the man who dares to challenge him, accusing “the traitors” and promising to “punish” them.
“It’s a stab in the back of our country and our people,” Putin said. “What we are facing is nothing but betrayal. A betrayal caused by the excessive ambitions and personal interests” of Mr. Prigozhin, he said.
Vladimir Putin “is deeply mistaken” and my fighters will not “surrender”, retorted the head of Wagner, who has been criticizing Russian military strategy in Ukraine for several months.
“We are patriots. No one is going to surrender at the request of the president, the security services or anyone else,” he promised, attacking the Russian president for the first time directly.
And while rumors on social networks claimed that Mr. Putin had left Moscow after the mutiny, his spokesman Dmitri Peskov quoted by the Ria Novosti agency, assured that “the president works in the Kremlin”.
In several audio messages on Friday, Wagner’s boss claimed that Russian strikes had caused a “very large number of victims” in his ranks. “A very large number of our fighters have been killed,” he said, accusing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering the attacks.
These accusations “do not correspond to reality and are a provocation”, retorted the Ministry of Defense in a press release.
24/06/2023 22:10:53 – Moscow (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
