The owner of the Wagner backstage subject contractor who called for an equipped rebellion aimed astatine ousting Russia’s defence curate confirmed Saturday greeting that helium and his troops person reached a cardinal Russian metropolis aft crossing the borderline from Ukraine.

Yevgeny Prigozhin posted a video of himself successful Rostov-on-Don astatine the Russian subject office that oversees the warring successful Ukraine. He claimed that his forces had subject facilities successful the metropolis nether their control, including the aerial field. Other videos posted connected societal media showed subject vehicles, including tanks, connected the streets outside.

Prigozhin said aboriginal Saturday that his forces had crossed into Russia from Ukraine and had reached Rostov, adding that they faced nary absorption from young conscripts astatine checkpoints and that his forces “aren’t warring against children.”

“But we volition destruct anyone who stands successful our way,” helium said successful 1 of a bid of aggravated video and audio recordings posted connected societal media opening precocious Friday. “We are moving guardant and volition spell until the end.”

Russia’s information services had responded to Prigozhin’s declaration of an equipped rebellion by calling for his arrest. In a motion of however earnestly the Kremlin took the threat, information was heightened successful Moscow and successful Rostov-on-Don. It was not instantly wide however helium was capable to participate the confederate Russian metropolis oregon however galore troops helium had with him.

Prigozhin alleged that the main of the General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, scrambled warplanes to onslaught Wagner’s convoys, which were driving alongside mean vehicles. He besides said his forces changeable down a Russian subject chopper that fired connected a civilian convoy, but determination was nary autarkic confirmation.

He said Wagner tract camps successful Ukraine were struck by rockets, chopper gunships and artillery occurrence connected orders from Gerasimov, pursuing a gathering successful Rostov with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu astatine which they decided to destruct Wagner.

Prigozhin said helium had 25,000 troops nether his bid and would punish Shoigu successful an equipped rebellion, and urged the service not to connection resistance: “This is not a subject coup, but a march of justice.”

While the result of the confrontation was inactive unclear, it appeared apt to further hinder Moscow’s warfare effort arsenic Kyiv’s forces were probing Russian defenses successful the archetypal stages of a counteroffensive. The dispute, particularly if Prigozhin were to prevail, besides could person repercussions for President Vladimir Putin and his quality to support a agreed front.

The Wagner forces person played a important relation successful Russia’s warfare successful Ukraine, succeeding successful taking the metropolis wherever the bloodiest and longest battles person taken place, Bakhmut. But Prigozhin has progressively criticized Russia’s subject brass, accusing it of incompetence and of starving his troops of weapons and ammunition.

On Friday, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which is portion of the Federal Security Services, oregon FSB, charged Prigozhin with calling for an equipped rebellion, punishable by up to 20 years successful prison.

The FSB urged Wagner’s declaration soldiers to apprehension Prigozhin and garbage to travel his “criminal and treacherous orders.” It called his statements a “stab successful the backmost to Russian troops” and said they amounted to fomenting equipped conflict.

Putin was informed astir the concern and “all the indispensable measures were being taken,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. On Saturday morning, helium added that Putin would code the federation “shortly.”

Heavy subject trucks and armored vehicles were seen successful respective parts of cardinal Moscow aboriginal Saturday, and soldiers toting battle rifles were deployed extracurricular the main gathering of the Defense Ministry. The country astir the statesmanlike medication adjacent Red Square was blocked, snarling traffic.

But adjacent with the heightened subject presence, downtown bars and restaurants were filled with customers. At 1 nine adjacent the office of the FSB, radical were dancing successful the thoroughfare adjacent the entrance.

Moscow’s politician announced Saturday greeting that counterterrorism measures were underway, including accrued power of roads and imaginable restrictions connected wide gatherings.

Prigozhin, whose feud with the Defense Ministry dates backmost years, had refused to comply with a request that subject contractors motion contracts with the ministry earlier July 1. In a connection precocious Friday, helium said helium was acceptable to find a compromise but “they person treacherously cheated us.”

“Today, they carried retired a rocket onslaught connected our rear camps, and a immense fig of our comrades got killed,” helium said. The Defense Ministry denied attacking the Wagner camps.

“The evil embodied by the country’s subject enactment indispensable beryllium stopped,” helium shouted.

Col. Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the lawman commandant of the Russian radical of forces warring successful Ukraine, urged the Wagner forces to halt immoderate determination against the army, saying it would play into the hands of Russia’s enemies, who are “waiting to spot the exacerbation of our home governmental situation.”

Tatiana Stanovaya, a governmental analyst, predicted this would beryllium the extremity of Prigozhin.

“Now that the authorities has actively engaged, there’s nary turning back,” she tweeted. “The termination of Prigozhin and Wagner is imminent. The lone anticipation present is implicit obliteration, with the grade of absorption from the Wagner radical being the lone variable. Surovikin was dispatched to person them to surrender. Confrontation seems wholly futile.”

Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alexeyev, a apical subject officer, denounced Prigozhin’s determination arsenic “madness” that threatens civilian war.

“It’s a stab successful the backmost to the state and the president. … Such a provocation could lone beryllium staged by enemies of Russia,” helium said.

The Defense Ministry said successful a connection that Ukraine was concentrating troops for an onslaught astir Bakhmut to instrumentality vantage of “Prigozhin’s provocation.” It said Russian artillery and warplanes were firing connected Ukrainian forces arsenic they prepared an offensive.

In Washington, the Institute for the Study of War said, “The convulsive overthrow of Putin loyalists similar Shoigu and Gerasimov would origin irreparable harm to the stableness of Putin’s perceived clasp connected power.”

At the White House, National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodge said: “We are monitoring the concern and volition beryllium consulting with allies and partners connected these developments.”

In Kyiv, a Russian rocket onslaught killed astatine slightest 2 radical and injured 8 Saturday erstwhile falling debris caused a occurrence connected respective floors of a 24-story flat gathering successful a cardinal district, Serhii Popko, the caput of the city’s subject medication posted connected Telegram.

He said much than 20 missiles were detected and destroyed. Video from the country showed a blaze successful the precocious floors of the gathering and the parking batch strewn with ash and debris.

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