The Russian Wagner paramilitary group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhinrose up on Friday against the regular army and its militiamen took positions in several regions, confronting the president Vladimir Putin to a serious crisis in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine.
After weeks of escalating tension between the Wagner leader and Moscow, Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the Russian army late Friday of shelling his group’s base camps and killing “a large number” of his men. He then calls to rise up against the Russian military command and affirms that he has 25,000 fighters, calling on “everyone who wants” to join them.
Despite ruling out that it is a “coup” and calling it a “march for justice”, the Russian security services (FBS) open a case against him for “calling for armed mutiny” and request his arrest.
Prigozhin assures in the early hours of Saturday that his troops have entered Russian territory and that he will go “to the end.”
He says his forces are ready to die for “the homeland” and to “liberate the Russian people” and that they have shot down a military helicopter.