The Russian president has accused Yevgeny Prigozhin of “treason” after the warlord launched an uprising against Russia’s army, taking over at least one major Russian city as social media footage showed his mercenaries at the main headquarters of Russia’s southern military command.
In an emergency televised address on Saturday morning, Vladimir Putin said “the fate of our people is being decided”, accusing the Wagner group headed by Prigozhin of “armed mutiny” and vowing to “neutralise” the uprising.
“It’s an attempt to subvert us from inside. This is treason in the face of those who are fighting on the front,” a visibly angry Putin told the Russian public.
“This is a stab in the back of our troops and the people of Russia.”
In Ukraine, where three people in Kyiv were killed in Russian airstrikes overnight, the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “Everyone who chooses the path of evil destroys himself. Who [...] throws hundreds of thousands into the war, in order to eventually barricade himself in the Moscow region from those whom he himself armed.”
In the UK, a Cobra security meeting was called and in Estonia, which neighbours Russia, the prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said there was strengthened security on the border.
In videos posted on social media early on Saturday, Prigozhin, who late on Friday vowed to take revenge against the Kremlin’s military leadership, said he was at the headquarters of the Southern Military District (SMD) in Rostov-on-Don and demanded the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, come to the city, 1,000km (620 miles) south of Moscow.
“We have arrived here, we want to receive the chief of the general staff and Shoigu,” Prigozhin said in one video, seated between two senior Russian generals. “Unless they come, we’ll be here, we’ll blockade the city of Rostov and head for Moscow.”
For the first time on Saturday he also directly criticised Putin, saying he was “deeply mistaken” in calling him a traitor.
Images circulating widely online showed what appeared to be Wagner troops with tanks and armoured vehicles surrounding government buildings in Rostov, where Prigozhin appears to have taken over a Russian army base.
Officials in Moscow were said to have been blindsided by Prigozhin’s betrayal and declaration of war on the defence ministry. “It’s real shock and hysteria, nobody understands what to do,” a former defence ministry official told the Guardian, citing his conversations on Saturday with former colleagues.
Wagner forces also claimed to have shot down several Russian military helicopters during fighting in the city. Video footage showed an anti-air missile being fired at a Russian Ka-52 helicopter, which deployed flares. Photographs also showed that at least one Mi-8 helicopter had crashed in the region, presumably after being targeted with anti-aircraft fire.
An explosion at an oil depot released a massive fireball and cloud of thick, black smoke near Voronezh.
Prigozhin’s troops were seen setting mines and establishing checkpoints in the city centre in Rostov. There were reports of explosions at the military headquarters occupied by Prigozhin on Saturday afternoon. It was not immediately clear what caused the blast or whether anyone was injured.
Several Russian media outlets also reported that Wagner fighters had taken control of all military facilities in the city of Voronezh, about 310 miles south of Moscow.
Commenting on Putin’s speech, Prigozhin said: “No one is going to turn themselves in at the request of the president ... we don’t want the country to continue to live in corruption and lies,” he added. “We are patriots, and those who are against us are the ones who gathered around the bastards.” Prigozhin has been accused by the FSB of armed mutiny.
Authorities in Moscow and the surrounding area declared a “counterterrorism” state of emergency, adding that all mass events in the city had been cancelled.
Zelenskiy blamed Russia’s “obvious” weakness for the uprising and said Russia was itself to blame for arming the Wagner troops that had now turned against the military.
“Russia has long disguised its weakness and stupidity of its rule with propaganda. And now there is so much chaos that no lie can hide it.”
Late on Friday, Prigozhin claimed a Russian rocket attack had killed scores of his fighters, vowing to take “revenge” and “stop the evil brought by the military leadership of the country”.
In a virtual declaration of war against his rivals in the Russian military, Prigozhin said he controlled 25,000 fighters and that together “we are going to figure out why the chaos is happening in the country”.
“Anyone who wants should join. We need to end this mess,” he said.
Russian security services have moved swiftly against the Wagner boss, denouncing Prigozhin for “treachery” and ordering the mercenary group’s fighters to detain their commander.
The defence ministry also published videos with several senior military generals who urged Prigozhin to stop what one commander described as a “coup”.
“This is a stab in the back of the country and the president,” Gen Vladimir Alekseyev, the deputy head of Russia’s military intelligence agency, said in a video appeal to Wagner fighters. “This is a coup,” Alekseyev added.
On Saturday morning, Prigozhin was seen meeting Russia’s deputy defence minister and the deputy head of the GRU, Russia’s main intelligence directorate. In the clip, Pirgozhin said he planned to march on to Moscow, adding that he had shot down three Russian helicopters that tried to resist him.
Several senior Russian officials called on the country to unite behind Putin. The foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, urged Russians to rally around the president, while the head of the Russian Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill, led a prayer for Putin. Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya who is a powerful ally of Putin, called Prigozhin a traitor and said he was sending Chechen troops to squash the mutiny.
Police also raided a Wagner headquarters in St Petersburg and claimed to have found billions of roubles in cash in a lorry nearby. Prigozhin, writing through his press service, confirmed the money belonged to Wagner, claiming it was to be used for salaries and other expenses.
Moscow began to evacuate museums, parks and other cultural centres on Saturday, as the government appeared to be taking extreme steps to keep crowds of people off the streets. Video showed crowds being led out of the Pushkin Museum, Sokolniki Park and other tourist destinations.
On Saturday, Putin also signed a new law permitting authorities to detain people for up to 30 days for violating martial law in places where it has been imposed. It was not clear if the move was related to Prigozhin’s uprising.
As of Saturday afternoon, Prigozhin looks isolated, with several former military allies denouncing his rebellion. But his troops appeared to have taken Rostov without any military resistance and questions will now rise over the military’s loyalty.
“It is tough to gauge current loyalties at the moment. I am confident that the military hierarchy stands with the government, and there won’t be any switching of allegiances,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, the founder of the political analysis firm R Politik.
“Yet, lower in the ranks, it’s a different story. If orders to open fire are issued, how will individual soldiers react?” Stanovaya added.
Britain’s defence ministry said on Saturday that the Russian state was facing its greatest security challenge of recent times, following what it said appeared to be a move by Wagner group mercenary forces towards Moscow.
“Over the coming hours, the loyalty of Russia’s security forces, and especially the Russian National Guard, will be key to how this crisis plays out,” Britain’s defence ministry said in a regular intelligence update.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said the events in Moscow showed that the “Ukrainian counteroffensive finally destabilised the Russian elites, intensifying the internal split that arose after the defeat in Ukraine”.
“Today we are actually witnessing the beginning of a civil war,” Podolyak added.