The Russian military has reportedly fired on Wagner forces advancing on a major highway to Moscow after the private mercenary group headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin entered the southwestern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
A Reuters correspondent reported witnessing Russian Army helicopters open fire on an armed Wagner column on June 24, just hours after Prigozhin announced that his forces had occupied parts of Rostov-on-Don, a military logistical center and staging point for Russia's war against Ukraine.
The armed Wagner column reportedly came under attack after passing the city of Voronezh, located nearly 600 kilometers north of Rostov-on-Don and more than halfway to the Russian capital. The column included troop carriers and at least one tank on a flatbed truck, according to Reuters.
Prigozhin's early morning announcement that Wagner had taken control of military and civilian facilities in Rostov-on-Don, a city of more than 1 million people, heralded the most serious challenge to the Russian state in recent years.
The Wagner insurrection, which followed Prigozhin's June 23 call for a "march of justice" to topple the Russian military leadership following claims his mercenaries fighting in Ukraine had been fired upon by Russian troops, marks the first armed insurrection in Russia since the Second Chechen War from 1999-2009.
The developments prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to deliver a televised address in which he said he would do "everything to protect the country" and called for national unity as Russia "engaged in its heaviest struggle for its future."
Putin described the private Wagner mercenary group's occupation of Rostov-on-Don as an "armed mutiny" and said that "decisive action" would be taken to stabilize the situation in southwestern Russia.
Putin said that Prigozhin had "betrayed" his country out of "personal ambition."
WATCH: Russian President Vladimir Putin calls for national unity and vows to do "everything to protect the country."
The mercenary leader last month toured several regions of Russia, giving interviews to local media, in what some experts said appeared to be an attempt to launch a political career.
The tour came shortly after his Wagner forces took control of most of Bakhmut in Donetsk in what was the first major Russian victory in its war against Ukraine since last summer.
Earlier this month, the Russian Defense Ministry moved to take direct control of Wagner in what experts called an attempt to sideline Prigozhin.
Prigozhin responded promptly to Putin's allegations of betrayal, saying in an audio message on Telegram after the speech that the Russian president was "deeply mistaken" and that he and his forces "are patriots of the motherland."
In his address to the nation, Putin vowed to punish all "traitors" involved in the Wagner action, which he said was a "stab in the back" in the face of what he characterized as a Western threat to Russian sovereignty.
"It is a blow to Russia, to our people. And our actions to defend the fatherland against such a threat will be harsh," Putin said. "All those who deliberately stepped on the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed insurrection, who took the path of blackmail and terrorist methods, will suffer inevitable punishment, will answer both to the law and to our people."
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Putin added that "the entire military, economic, and information machine of the West," which has backed Ukraine following Russia's unprovoked all-out invasion in February 2022, was "effectively aimed against us."
Top Russian officials and personalities, including former President Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill, and Russian State Duma head Vyacheslav Volodin, echoed Putin's call for Russian citizens to rally and for Wagner troops to halt the insurrection.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Putin ally who has headed the republic in Russia's North Caucasus region since 2007, said he was deploying Chechen troops to "preserve Russia's unity and protect its statehood."
Video posted on social media later on June 24 claimed to show Chechen forces headed to Rostov. RFE/RL could not immediately confirm the information.
Prigozhin announced on Telegram early on June 24 that his forces had taken control of the Russian military headquarters in the city, as well as its military sites and airport.
"We are inside the [military] headquarters. It is 7:30 a.m.," Prigozhin said in a video. "Military sites in Rostov, including an airport, are under control." Prigozhin added that aircraft participating in Russia's war against Ukraine were "leaving as normal" and that his forces had taken the airport "so that the attack aviation would not strike us, but strike Ukrainians."
Prigozhin said his forces crossed from Ukraine, where the private Wagner mercenary force has been heavily involved in fighting against Ukraine's military, into Russia and had faced no resistance from Russian conscripts it allegedly encountered.
Prigozhin said Wagner was not "fighting against children" but "will destroy anyone who stands in our way."
Videos posted on social media showed military vehicles, including tanks, on the streets of Rostov-on-Don and scenes of Wagner representatives allegedly meeting face-to-face with Russian military officials in the city.
The British Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update early on June 24 that "further Wagner units are moving north through Voronezh Oblast, almost certainly aiming to get to Moscow," noting that "with very limited evidence of fighting between Wagner and Russian security forces" some Russian security forces had likely remained "passive" and were "acquiescing to Wagner."
Reuters news agency cited a Russian security source as saying on June 24 that Wagner fighters had taken control of military facilities in the city of Voronezh. Reuters and RFE/RL were unable to independently confirm the claim.
ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Eyewitnesses say administrative buildings in Rostov-on-Don are surrounded by two rings: Inside are soldiers wearing red armbands, the Russian Military, and outside there are people with white armbands, Wagner mercenaries who hold the military in their sights.
Voronezh region head Aleksandr Gusev, who initially dismissed reports of the movement of Wagner columns in the territory as "false information," later said that the Russian military was taking "necessary military measures" and that firefighters were working to extinguish a fire at a fuel depot in the region.
Rostov-on-Don is a main logistical base for Russia's war operations in Ukraine. Prigozhin said on June 24 that his forces' presence there would not impede the Russian war effort in Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces recently launched a major counteroffensive to retake Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia.
The development comes after Prigozhin the day earlier suggested he had sent an armed convoy toward Moscow in what was seen as an unlikely effort to topple the Russian military leadership.
Prigozhin said he was backed by 25,000 fighters, including Russian servicemen, and that their aim was to take down the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, Valery Gerasimov.
Media have not been able to confirm the number of fighters currently under Prigozhin’s command.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said he had put "anti-terror measures" into effect in the Russian capital, including increased traffic checks and restrictions on large events.
In St. Petersburg, the headquarters of the Wagner Group had been cordoned off, according to TASS.
IN PHOTOS: Armed men from the Wagner mercenary group storm the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don amid claims of a "mutiny" under way against Russia's Defense Ministry.
Wagner Fighters Seen In Key Russian City After Call For 'Rebellion'
Armed men, reportedly from the Wagner mercenary group, have been photographed in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don amid claims of a "mutiny" under way against Russia's Defense Ministry.
The Kremlin said Putin had called Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has supported Russia's war against Ukraine and allowed his country to be used as a staging point for Russian military operations, as well as the presidents of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to inform them of the current situation.
Putin also held a call with Turkish President Recep Erdogan, who expressed support for his Russian counterpart. Erdogan has been a key intermediary in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Ukraine and its Western partners weighed in, with NATO saying it was "monitoring the situation" and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying that "Russia's weakness is obvious."
"The longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain, and problems it will have for itself later," Zelenskiy added in a Telegram message.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, described Prigozhin's actions as a "counterterrorist" operation that clearly exposed the simmering feud among Russia's leadership.
"The split between the elites is too obvious. Agreeing and pretending that everything is settled won't work," Podolyak wrote in a tweet on June 24. "Someone must definitely lose: either Prigozhin...or the collective 'anti-Prigozhin.'"
"Everything is just beginning in Russia," Podolyak added.
Late on June 23, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a criminal probe after what it said was a "call for an armed mutiny" by Prigozhin, while a top Russian general called on Wagner forces to give up their opposition to the Russian military.
What began in recent weeks as increasingly open opposition of the Kremlin elite and military escalated into Wagner military action in Russia itself after Prigozhin on June 23 accused the Russian Defense Ministry of launching rocket attacks on the rear camps of his forces in Ukraine using artillery and attack helicopters.
In a series of audio messages on his Telegram channel, Prigozhin said there were many victims in the ranks of his mercenary group but did not specify exactly where the strikes took place.
"Those who destroyed our lads, who destroyed the lives of many tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, will be punished. I ask that no one offer resistance," Prigozhin said. The Wagner chief, once seen as a close ally to Putin, added that it was “not a military coup” rather a “march of justice."
Prigozhin, who has openly challenged Russia's military leadership in recent weeks amid heavy fighting in Ukraine, also said that Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was justified based on "lies."
"The war was needed...so that Shoigu could become a marshal...so that he could get a second 'Hero' [of Russia] medal," Prigozhin said. "The war wasn't needed to demilitarize or 'deNazify' Ukraine," Prigozhin said, referring to Putin's oft-stated reasons for launching the war against Kyiv.
The Defense Ministry responded by saying that the statements "do not correspond to reality," calling them a "provocation."
With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service, Current Time, AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters, Interfax, and TASS
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