Wagner Boss Says He’s ‘Ready to Die’ With 25,000 Fighters Moscow has announced an “anti-terrorist operation” as the mercenary group says it’s engaging in battles with the regular Russian military. Moscow has launched anti-terrorist operations as Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin says he is “ready to die” with 25,000 fighters prepared to stage a mutiny and stop the “evil” leading the war effort. After months of feuding between the mercenary boss and Russia’s Defense Ministry, things came to a head Friday when Prigozhin accused the Russian military of ordering a rocket strike on a camp full of his men and vowed merciless revenge. Within hours, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced charges against Prigozhin for attempting to incite an armed rebellion, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars. Top Russian military brass released video appeals calling on Prigozhin to surrender, or for his own men to detain him and hand him over. And state-run media aired an emergency broadcast relaying the same message. But Prigozhin showed no sign of backing down, instead releasing a series of audio messages via his press service late Friday in which he accused the Defense Ministry of deploying fighter jets to shoot at Wagner vehicles in the Rostov region and of firing at civilians on Russian territory. “If someone gets in the way, we will destroy everything that gets in the way. We reach out a hand to everyone, no need to spit in that hand. We are going all the way,” he said, later adding: “We’re all ready to die, all 25,000! And then there will be another 25,000!” Local media reported checkpoints being set up late Friday night on a highway that leads from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow, and the territory around the Kremlin was reportedly closed off to visitors for the foreseeable future. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said “anti-terrorism measures” were being carried out to boost security in the capital, while residents in the Rostov region were urged by the governor to stay at home. The potentially explosive standoff between Wagner fighters and regular troops comes after Prigozhin released a fiery voice memo Friday claiming to have lost a “huge” number of soldiers in a rocket strike at a Wagner camp—an attack Moscow denies orchestrating. In the memo, an enraged Prigozhin vowed to confront Russia’s military leadership and promised revenge. “Today, seeing that we have not been broken, they conducted missile strikes at our rear camps,” Prigozhin said. “The council of commanders of PMC Wagner has made a decision—the evil that the military leadership of the country brings must be stopped.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/feud-...-group-turns-to-all-out-war?ref=home?ref=home
Moscow trying to stop Prigozhin with a truck blockade because all their damned tanks are in Ukraine! I don't think there are any russian military left in russia, they also are all in Ukraine.
Wagner reportedly takes over military facilities in Voronezh, Reuters source says A Russian security source told Reuters on Saturday that Wagner Group mercenary fighters had taken control of all military facilities in the city of Voronezh, around 500 kilometres south of Moscow. The city is 600km north of Rostov-on-Don https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06...&utm_source=abc_news_web#live-blog-post-32745
Putin is in hiding, the Kremlin is panicking and the big winner of Prigozhin's apparent mutiny is Ukraine Moscow is in crisis. Manoeuvrings at the highest levels in Russia are always difficult to read clearly, but one thing is certain about what is happening in Moscow: the Kremlin is panicking. The real indications that there is a crisis come from within Russia itself. Soldiers in army trucks are being moved around the streets of Moscow, reinforcing key facilities such as television stations and energy infrastructure. Vladimir Putin has gone into hiding. Russian state TV has interrupted programming several times to urge people not to listen to the "disinformation" being spread. What disinformation? This is the Kremlin's equivalent to the pilot, out of the blue, telling passengers not to panic. Then there's the Russian Defence Ministry which has said that the only winner out of the current "confusion" will be Ukraine. What confusion? There is only one clear winner out of this – Ukraine. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-24/the-winner-of-prigozhins-apparent-mutiny-is-ukraine/102520058
Crazy that many of the Russian oligarchs and companies have huge private armies. Wagner has 25,000 men, but Russian natural gas company Gazprom has 50,000 men. Apparently many of them have been arming themselves for this very eventuation. This could devolve into a huge humanitarian disaster.
In response to Putin’s address to the nation, where he accused the Wagner mutineers of treason, Prighozhin 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.” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06...&utm_source=abc_news_web#live-blog-post-32764
Prigozhin (Wagner) forces continue to advance on Moscow. Putin forces destroying resources such as fuel depots to deny them to Prigozhin forces. Reports that Putin forces (helicopters) have directly attacked Prigozhin forces.
Get ready. I think this may be the future of Russia. Prepare for more inflation as Russian systems truly break down and the world loses the cheapest and most abundant source of oil, wheat, fertilizer, and most metal ore. *Edit* This was always going to happen. But this is what the start of losing all of that Russian output likely looks like.
