Breaking: Wagner chief says he ordered his Russian mercenaries to halt march on Moscow
Putin vowed Saturday to punish the organizers of an armed rebellion in Russia
Prigozhin said that while his men are just 200 kilometres from Moscow, he decided to turn them back to avoid “shedding Russian blood.” President Vladimir Putin vowed harsh consequences for organizers of the armed uprising led by his one-time protege, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who brought his forces out of Ukraine, seized a key military facility in southern Russia and advanced toward Moscow.
Prigozhin's private army appeared to control the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a city 660 miles south of Moscow that runs Russian operations in Ukraine, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow was suffering “full-scale weakness” and that Kyiv was protecting Europe from “the spread of Russian evil and chaos.”
Prigozhin’s private army has been fighting alongside regular Russian troops in Ukraine. His goals weren’t immediately clear, but the rebellion marks an escalation in his struggle with Russian military leaders, whom he accused of botching the war in Ukraine and hobbling his forces in the field.Prigozhin said he had 25,000 troops under his command and urged the army not to offer resistance.
State-controlled TV networks led their newscasts with Putin’s statement and reported the tense situation in Rostov-on-Don. Some showed social media videos of residents denouncing Wagner troops.
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