Putin to give televised address after Wagner Group 'coup'
Shafaq News/ Yevgeny Prigrozhin, head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, has threatened to march on Moscow after confirming that his fighters now control military buildings and the airport in Rostov.
He said that he had met with a deputy Russian defence minister and would hand back control of the city if Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Defence Minister, and Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian military, are handed over to him. He blames them for poor military leadership and for unnecessarily killing thousands of Russian soldiers.
“Until they are no more, we will stay here, blocking the city of Rostov and then we will go to Moscow,” he said in a video shot in the centre of Rostov.
Rostov is the main military headquarters for Russia’s top commanders directing the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
In the video, Prigozhin wears a military uniform and is armed. Other videos clearly showed heavily armed fighters wearing Wagner badges strolling around the city and taking up defensive positions.
“We are not running away. We came to stop the shame of the country in which we live,” he said. “We are saving Russia.”
Russia’s FSB security services have opened a criminal case against Prigozhin for launching an armed rebellion, although he has denied that he has initiated a coup.
