Russia’s first armed uprising in three decades began with a fragmented voice message left on the Telegram messaging app.
Warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has accused the army leadership of “killing tens of thousands of Russian soldiers” over the disastrous invasion of Ukraine.
Prigozhin, head of the Wagnerian gang of mercenaries fighting for Russia in eastern Ukraine, has been complaining about regular army leaders for months. But this time is different. Prigozhin and his men are about to launch a bold march into Moscow to “punish” the defense minister and top army generals.
“Wagner’s commanders have taken a decision. The evil spread by the country’s military leadership must be stopped,” Prigozhin said in a short recorded message released around 9 p.m. local time on Friday.
The warlord’s voice was full of rage as he said his 25,000 troops would start marching from their stronghold in eastern Ukraine to Moscow.
“I ask everyone not to stand in our way. Those who try to stop us, we will see them as a threat and eliminate them immediately,” he said. “This is not a military coup. This is a march for justice.”
Shocked officials responded. Later on Friday, the security service of Russia’s FSB announced criminal charges against Prigozhin for “organizing an armed rebellion”.
Senior Army General Sergei Surovkin recorded a video calling on Wagner fighters to lay down their weapons. The state’s Channel 1 aired an urgent news bulletin, with the anchor trying to refute Prigozhin’s claims. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the incident.
Security has been tightened in Moscow, with people sharing photos of military vehicles on the streets at night. But the focus of the uprising soon became Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, home to the Army’s Southern Command, which oversees the war in Ukraine.
The large port city is just a two-hour drive from occupied eastern Ukraine, where Wagner’s base camp is located. In the early hours of Saturday morning, their mercenaries arrived.
Wagner tanks and armored vehicles are scattered throughout the city. Heavily armed soldiers jumped out and surrounded key buildings: military headquarters, local government buildings, FSB headquarters.
Local blogger Andre captured the scenes as he walked across the city to work. “Rostov. 9 in the morning. People are panicking, that’s for sure. Everyone’s out there trying to figure out what’s going on . . . everyone’s scared,” he said in the video.
He filmed the barricades set up by police. Behind it, Wagner’s men stood guard. At another intersection, he spotted men from the mercenary regiment sitting in a pickup truck with a machine gun mounted on the back. The situation seemed peaceful, but Wagner had taken control of the city.
Prigozhin was filmed at the army-occupied Rostov headquarters, sitting down for a brief chat with Russia’s deputy defense minister.
In other parts of the country, authorities began removing Wagner’s banners and billboards. Its headquarters in St. Petersburg, a gleaming glass skyscraper, has been surrounded by police. Moscow and the Moscow region have announced that their security status will be raised to counter-terrorism levels, including random identity checks and increased surveillance.
The program on state television remained routine, full of jolly morning cooking shows and serial dramas, but was interrupted by Putin’s emergency broadcast at 10 a.m. Moscow time.
“Internal traitors” “let their self-interest lead them to treason,” the president said on camera. Wagner organized a mutiny. “Action will be taken.”
As he spoke, a convoy of Wagner vehicles and fighter jets was advancing north from Rostov along the M4 highway to Moscow. Tanks and other vehicles move in small units.
By noon on Saturday, the column had passed through the Voronezh region. The army tried to intercept it. Reports of clashes continued to emerge.
The governor of Voronezh warned that “combat operations” were taking place in the area. “Frontline aviation is working along the M4 motorway,” wrote the Rybar Telegram channel, run by a former MoD press secretary. A helicopter was shot down.
Witnesses in villages along the highway in the Voronezh region shared videos of artillery fire and explosions in the distance, with combat helicopters overhead. Russians couldn’t believe the scenes: “Bombing Voronezh” is a popular meme, synonymous with Russia shooting itself in the foot. Now, that meme has become a reality.
“The sound was really loud and scary, people’s roofs were destroyed, windows were shattered. As far as I know, Wagner fighters were attacked and they were protecting themselves.” A woman from the village of Pavlovsk, Voronezh Region Said.
She saw “two trains (of Wagner vehicles) about 3 kilometers long each” heading towards the Voronezh regional capital. “They were heavily armed, I have never seen such military equipment in my life,” she added.
Another woman on the eastern outskirts of Voronezh shared a video showing a helicopter flying a few meters above her roof. “It just flew over our house,” she wrote. “When we first heard about Rostov, we kept calm and continued smoking shisha in the backyard. Well, it’s not a shisha atmosphere anymore.”
Residents heard a loud bang and saw flames burning as a helicopter flew over an oil depot on the left bank of the Voronezh River around 1 p.m. local time. Billows of black smoke could be seen billowing from the station above the city center.
Several news agencies reported that Wagner’s forces “had taken control of military installations in Voronezh,” although locals saw no paramilitary fighters or vehicles in the city.
“I drove through the city. Nothing unusual, the streets were clean. The only thing I noticed was the queue at the gas station. People thought we were running out of gas because the tank was on fire.” A man in Voronezh Said.
Meanwhile, in Rostov, Wagner’s troops continued to occupy the city. Some residents posed for photos with soldiers, while others climbed onto tanks. Some mercenaries were photographed drinking coffee and buying takeaway lunches.
Attempts by the army to intercept Wagner’s convoy failed, and the convoy continued north. At 4 p.m., the plane had arrived in the Lipetsk region, 400 kilometers south of Moscow.
Local authorities in the area north of the convoy scrambled to find a way to stop the convoy. Roads were blocked by school buses and trucks. Excavators show up on the highway and start digging holes in the asphalt. The Oka River traverses the area south of Moscow and becomes an important line of defense for the capital. The bridge across it was blocked by the army.
The unrest has drawn widespread attention in Ukraine, with jokes about supermarkets running out of popcorn circulating on social media. Politicians revel in Russia’s display of weakness.
“The tragicomedy of recent days has eloquently explained to leaders of other countries why Ukraine considers it impossible to negotiate with Putin’s Russia today,” said Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolak. The days are numbered and there is no one in the house anymore.”
As the convoy approached Moscow, the Russians grew increasingly concerned about bloodshed with the military. But suddenly, as night fell, Prigozhin had a new message for his fellow citizens.
“In 24 hours, we have reached 200 kilometers from Moscow,” he said in a new recording on Telegram.
“This is a moment of possible bloodshed,” he said. To avoid that, “we’re switching our fleet”.
Meanwhile, the office of the Belarusian president, a close Putin ally, released a statement. At Putin’s request, Aleksandr Lukashenko spent the whole day negotiating with Prigozhin. They struck a deal. Wagner will withdraw to his base in eastern Ukraine, and Prigozhin will go to Belarus.
As night fell in Rostov, residents watched as the Wagnerian fighters prepared to leave the city. People cheered the mercenaries; shouts of “Wagner’s power!” rang out. Prigozhin appears and is greeted like a hero.
By Sunday morning, Wagner had left Russia and returned to occupied Ukraine. The coup left little sign of it. The mayor of Rostov said militia tank tracks had damaged 10,000 square meters of the city’s asphalt – and repair work on the tarmac would begin immediately.
Additional reporting by Roman Olearchyk in Kiev