Yevgeny Prigozhin, the commander of Russia’s Wagner private army, which has been fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, has urged Russian forces to join his armed insurrection against the nation’s military leadership.
Social media videos appeared to show Prigozhin’s forces traveling by convoy to Rostov-on-Don, the location of the Russian military’s southern region headquarters, and then assaulting the building while civilian observers, some of whom were smoking, stood by indifferently.
Wagner convoy moving through a Russian checkpoint, reportedly in Rostov Oblast, hauler with a BMP-3 IFV, 4x KAMAZ 5350, 3x Bukhanka, 2x KamAZ fuel tanker pic.twitter.com/3xmAGMMmYi
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 24, 2023
BREAKING:
The Wagner Group is storming the headquarters of the Russian Defense Ministry in the city of Rostov.
The military coup continues pic.twitter.com/91yqLti4AG
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 24, 2023
A subsequent tweet purported to contain a video of Prigozhin claiming to have seized control of the city and inviting Russian Defense Minister Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Gerasimov to meet with him at the headquarters building he now controls.
Yevgeny Prigozhin speaking once again from the Southern Military District Headquarters in the City of Rostov-on-Don, stating that Wagner has Occupied all of the Military Installations across the City including the Airfield to insure that the Russian Air Force is Attacking the… pic.twitter.com/S3krmZqEg6
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 24, 2023
The Western Journal has not yet been able to independently confirm the authenticity of these videos or their summaries.
Meanwhile, according to The Washington Post, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned Prigozhin and called on the Russian people to oppose him, comparing the mercenary commander to a terrorist: “Everyone who deliberately embarked on the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed rebellion, who chose the path of blackmail and terrorist methods — they will suffer inevitable punishment.”
According to NPR, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which is part of the Federal Security Services, has also charged Prigozhin with armed insurrection.
Prigozhin has argued, however, that his forces are only seeking “justice” for a missile strike that killed some of his men at the behest of “evil” Russian military leadership, and while he has sworn to march his forces to Moscow, he has stated that he has no intention of overthrowing Putin’s government.
“Presidential power, the government, the police and Russian guard will work as usual,” he said, according to the BBC. “This is not a military coup, but a march of justice. Our actions do not interfere with the troops in any way.”
“The Ministry of Defence is trying to deceive the public, deceive the president and tell a story that there was some crazy aggression by Ukraine, that — together with the whole Nato bloc — Ukraine was planning to attack us,” Prigozhin said Friday.
In reality, he argued, the war was started because Shoigu, the defense minister, wanted to “become a Marshall.”