We are closing our blog now, thanks for following today’s developments with us. You can read our report on Putin’s and Prigozhin’s statements here:
Russian president Vladimir Putin is holding a meeting with the country’s top security officials on Monday evening, Interfax reports.
Defence minister Sergei Shoigu, prosecutor general Igor Krasnov, interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev and the director of the FSB security service Alexander Bortnikov are reportedly among the attendees.
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Putin and Prigozhin reappear in public for first time since mutiny called off
Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin have both reappeared in public for the first time since the Russian warlord abandoned his armed mutiny on Saturday evening, with the Russian president thanking mercenary fighters and commanders who had stood down to avoid bloodshed.
In a late night televised address to on Monday evening, Putin said: “Any blackmail or way to bring confusion to Russia is doomed to failure… I made steps to avoid large bloodshed.”
He added: “The organisers of the rebellion, having betrayed their country, their people, betrayed those who were drawn into the crime, pushed them, pushed them to death, under fire, to shoot at their own”.
The Russian president appeared to suggest that the Wagner group would still be shut down, saying that Wagner fighters had the choice to sign a contract with the ministry of defence or relocate to Belarus if they wanted as part of a settlement negotiated with the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko.
“The majority of Wagner commanders and fighters are patriots. They were used covertly against their brothers-in-arms,” he said.
Putin’s unscheduled appearance came just hours after Prigozhin issued a defiant 11-minute statement in which he defended the Wagner uprising and denied that he had sought to topple the Russian president.
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Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko is no longer due to make a statement tonight, his press office has said on Telegram.
Vladimir Putin also appeared to suggest in his address that the Wagner group would be shut down, saying that fighters from the mercenary group had the choice to sign a contract with the ministry of defence. Putin added he would honour his promise to allow Wagner fighters to relocate to Belarus if they wanted.
“The majority of Wagner commanders and fighters are patriots. They were used covertly against their brothers-in-arms,” he said.
Armed rebellion 'would have been suppressed', says Putin
Russian president Vladimir Putin has said the attempted Wagner rebellion “would have been suppressed anyway” and that “any blackmail or way to bring confusion to Russia is doomed to failure.”
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The White House’s national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the US does not know the details of the deal reached between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin that put a stop to the uprising.
Kirby added that he did not know Prigozhin’s whereabouts.
Belarusian president and Kremlin ally Alexander Lukashenko may also be making a statement tonight.
The president’s press office sent a cryptic message on Telegram: “A lot of questions, stuffing, versions and assumptions... The first one will TELL everything, ANSWER everything. Very soon! Follow the agenda!“
The Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin not been seen or heard from since he left Rostov with his troops on Saturday evening with an apparent deal offering him amnesty and exile in Belarus, however, Russian state-owned media reports that a criminal investigation into his actions has not ended.
On Sunday, Belarus’ Belta news agency said Putin and Lukashenko spoke on Sunday, after at least two calls on Saturday.
Putin to make 'important statements'
Good evening, I’m Sammy Gecsoyler and I’ll be covering the latest developments.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is due to make a number of “important” statements shortly, Russian media reported, citing the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
The purported address comes after Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin reappeared for the first time since abandoning his armed mutiny on Saturday evening, issuing a defiant 11-minute statement in which he defended the Wagner uprising and said that “society demanded it”.
In the statement, Prigozhin denied that Wagner sought to topple Putin and said that the uprising had shown that there were “serious problems with security on the whole territory of our country”. “It was not our goal to overthrow the regime,” Prigozhin said in the voice memo, which was uploaded to his Concord Group’s Telegram page.
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Summary
The time in Kyiv is almost 9pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s headlines:
The Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has reappeared for the first time since abandoning his armed mutiny on Saturday evening, issuing a defiant 11-minute statement in which he defended the Wagner uprising and said that “society demanded it”. In the statement, Prigozhin denied that Wagner sought to topple Putin and said that the uprising had shown that there were “serious problems with security on the whole territory of our country”. “It was not our goal to overthrow the regime,” Prigozhin said in the voice memo, which was uploaded to his Concord Group’s Telegram page.
The US was not involved in the weekend mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, against Vladimir Putin. “We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it,” Joe Biden said at a White House event on high-speed internet. “This was part of a struggle within the Russian system. “We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine. But it’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going.”
Two Russian Su-27 fighter jets intercepted three British military aircraft heading over the Black Sea towards the Russian border on Monday, the Russian defence ministry said. According to the ministry, the intercepted planes were an RC-135 reconnaissance and electronic warfare plane and two Typhoon fighter jets, Reuters reported.
The US plans to announce as soon as Tuesday a new military aid package for Ukraine worth up to $500m (£390m), showing that the US resolve to help Ukraine fight Russia was undeterred by the attempted mutiny over the weekend among Russian fighters. The military aid package will include ground vehicles as Ukraine presses its counteroffensive, two US officials said. Expected to be included are 30 Bradley fighting vehicles and 25 Stryker armoured personnel carriers, one of the officials said.
Senior Ukrainian officials in Kyiv have argued that the attempted coup in Russia shows that Vladimir Putin does not guarantee stability – and instead makes it more likely the Russian state will collapse. In a tweet, Mikhail Podolyak, a senior adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, pushed back against the idea that any successor to Putin might turn out to be worse. “Sometimes one can hear an opinion from our western allies: whatever Putin may be, today he is the key guarantor of stability in the Russian powder keg. The events of recent days prove us otherwise.”
James Cleverly, the UK foreign secretary, said the aborted mutiny by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, represented an unprecedented challenge to Vladimir Putin. “Prigozhin’s rebellion is an unprecedented challenge to president Putin’s authority and it is clear cracks are emerging in Russian support for the war,” he told parliament.
The EU’s high representative on foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, has said the EU’s view of the future of Russia had changed over the past 48 hours, with political instability and internal fragility in a nuclear power adding to the military danger already posed by Moscow. “It is clear now that our vision of Russia is quite different. It is not just a threat because it has military capability of provoking war, which it has shown already, but also internal political stability.”
Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs has called on the US to speed up the training of fighter pilots give it the air force it needs in its defence and counter-offensive efforts against Russia. Dmytro Kuleba also called for a global ban on dual use technologies that can be sold to Russia for drones but used for military operations.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, has moved to reassure allies in Africa that thousands of Wagner group fighters deployed to the continent will not be withdrawn after the mutiny led by their commander, Yevgeny Prigozhin, over the weekend. In an interview with Russia Today, Lavrov pledged that “instructors” and “private military contractors” would remain in Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali, the two countries in sub-Saharan Africa where Wagner has the biggest presence.
Ukrainian forces have liberated the south-eastern village of Rivnopil from Russian control, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said on Monday. Rivnopil lies west of a cluster of settlements that Ukraine said it recaptured from Russian forces earlier this month after launching a counteroffensive. “Defence forces have brought Rivnopil back under our control. We are moving ahead,” Maliar wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Moldova’s prime minister said the aborted mutiny in Russia has exposed Moscow’s weakness and that what he described as the Kremlin’s interference in his own country was getting less effective over time. The former Soviet republic wedged between Ukraine and Romania has repeatedly accused Russia of meddling in its affairs, particularly over the breakaway region of Transnistria – accusations Russia denies.
Serhiy Lysak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, reports that two people have been killed and another wounded in an attack on Nikopol. He posted to Telegram: “In the afternoon, the Rashists hit Nikopol with heavy artillery. A private enterprise was struck. Two employees were killed – a 51-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man.”
Ukraine expects to receive a clear invitation for simplified accession to Nato when the military alliance holds a summit next month in Lithuania, a senior official said on Monday. Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential staff, reiterated Ukraine’s position on Nato accession in comments published after Russia thwarted a march by mercenaries heading towards Moscow at the weekend, Reuters reported.
Russia’s defence minister has appeared on state TV and emergency counter-terrorism measures have been cancelled in Moscow and surrounding regions as the Kremlin seeks to restore calm following Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny.
The defence ministry released footage on Monday that it claimed showed Sergei Shoigu “visiting the forward command post of one of the formations of the ‘western’ group of troops”. In the video, Shoigu is shown riding in a vehicle and arriving at a command post, where he listens to reports from officers and pores over a battlefield map. The video was released without sound and it was unclear when and where it was filmed, nonetheless, the footage showed tacit government support for Shoigu, whom Prigozhin had sought to oust with his uprising.
The weekend’s events have “exposed the weakness of Putin’s regime”, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said, saying he had discussed the turmoil in Russia in a phone call with the US president, Joe Biden. In a statement, Zelenskiy called for global pressure to be exerted on Russia and said that he and Biden had also discussed expanding defence cooperation with an emphasis on long-range weapons.
The Russian rouble opened at a near 15-month low against the dollar in early morning trade on Monday, responding for the first time to the Wagner mutiny.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported that Russia attacked Ukraine overnight from the south with three Kalibr cruise missiles and eight Shahed drones – two missiles and seven drones were shot down. Also, it claimed, four drones of an unknown type were launched from the north, and all of them were shot down.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. Thanks for following along.
Updated
Russia says its jets intercept British military aircraft over Black Sea
Two Russian Su-27 fighter jets intercepted three British military aircraft heading over the Black Sea towards the Russian border on Monday, the Russian defence ministry said.
According to the ministry, the intercepted planes were an RC-135 reconnaissance and electronic warfare plane and two Typhoon fighter jets, Reuters reported.
“When approached by Russian fighters, the foreign military aircraft turned back from the state border of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said.
Moldova’s prime minister said the aborted mutiny in Russia has exposed Moscow’s weakness and that what he described as the Kremlin’s interference in his own country was getting less effective over time.
The former Soviet republic wedged between Ukraine and Romania has repeatedly accused Russia of meddling in its affairs, particularly over the breakaway region of Transnistria – accusations Russia denies.
“What we have seen in recent days is a clear indication of the weakness of the Russian leadership and the Russian management of the army,” Dorin Recean told Reuters in an interview.
“Russia is much weaker than people perceived it to be,” he added, speaking in Zurich before a meeting of the European Free Trade Association in neighbouring Liechtenstein where he is due to sign a free trade agreement.
Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin surprised the world by leading Saturday’s armed revolt, only to abruptly call it off as his fighters approached Moscow having shot down several aircraft but meeting no resistance on the ground.
The events could prove a military and morale boost to Ukraine as it fought off Russia’s invasion, Recean said. “It is important to have even more commitment from the west to supply Ukraine with what it needs in order to defend the country and to push Russian troops out.”
Moldova, which hopes to join the European Union by 2030, has accused Russia of mounting a series of attempts to undermine its security, including a coup attempt, bomb hoaxes, internet hacks and fake conscription call-ups.
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The Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has said that he was not aiming to oust the Russian leadership by marching towards Moscow, but that he was acting to protect his Wagner group from being disbanded.
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Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, has moved to reassure allies in Africa that thousands of Wagner group fighters deployed to the continent will not be withdrawn after the mutiny led by their commander, Yevgeny Prigozhin, over the weekend.
In an interview with Russia Today, Lavrov pledged that “instructors” and “private military contractors” would remain in Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali, the two countries in sub-Saharan Africa where Wagner has the biggest presence.
Both are considered strategic prizes by the Kremlin, which sees them as a springboard to greater influence on the continent and a source of lucrative natural resources.
“At their request, several hundred servicemen are working in the CAR as instructors – this work, of course, will continue … Both the CAR and Mali appealed to the Wagner PMCs with a request to ensure the safety of their leadership,” Lavrov said. “Regarding the reports about who is panicking and about what, I did not see any panic. I did not see any changes in the relations of the relevant African countries with the Russian Federation.”
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US not involved in mutiny, says Biden
The US was not involved in the weekend mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, against Vladimir Putin.
“We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it,” Joe Biden said at a White House event on high-speed internet. “This was part of a struggle within the Russian system.
“We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine. But it’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going.”
Updated
The US plans to announce as soon as Tuesday a new military aid package for Ukraine worth up to $500m (£390m), showing that the US resolve to help Ukraine fight Russia was undeterred by the attempted mutiny over the weekend among Russian fighters.
The military aid package will include ground vehicles as Ukraine presses its counteroffensive, two US officials said. Expected to be included are 30 Bradley fighting vehicles and 25 Stryker armoured personnel carriers, one of the officials said.
As a part of the aid package, Ukraine will receive munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (Himars), anti-tank weapons including Javelins and munitions for Patriot and Stinger anti-aircraft systems, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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The EU’s high representative on foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, has said the EU’s view of the future of Russia had changed over the past 48 hours, with political instability and internal fragility in a nuclear power adding to the military danger already posed by Moscow.
“It is clear now that our vision of Russia is quite different. It is not just a threat because it has military capability of provoking war, which it has shown already, but also internal political stability.”
Earlier he had described the Warner mercenary leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, as a “monster” attacking its creator.
The situation “remain complex and unpredictable”.
Borrell said: “But the conclusion of our debate it is clear and they [EU foreign ministers] want to stress it: continue supporting Ukraine more than ever, continue and increasing support all kinds of support and in particular the military one because war raging more than ever.”
He did not elaborate on new strategies.
“It takes time to develop a strategy in view of such a state of affairs. We are working on it. I think we can say that everyone is already analysing the possible scenarios that could develop but we don’t have a ready-made strategy.”
Borrell said the EU was also concerned about a change in the role of Wagner mercenaries, previously supported by Vladimir Putin, in parts of Africa, especially Mali and Central African Republic.
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In the UK, James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, is making a statement about the events in Russia over the weekend.
One of the first MPs to ask a question was Liz Truss, the former prime minister.
Truss said there should be no letup in support for Ukraine, and she said its admission to Nato should be fast-tracked. She also said there should be no talk of deals with Russia, or of sanctions being lifted, until the “war criminals” had been held to account.
In reply, Cleverly said Truss was making “incredibly important” points. He said Ukraine’s record in the war showed why it should ultimately be a member of Nato. The war had truncated the period it should have to wait, he said. He said other allies thought the same.
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Senior Ukrainian officials in Kyiv have argued that the attempted coup in Russia shows that Vladimir Putin does not guarantee stability – and instead makes it more likely the Russian state will collapse.
In a tweet, Mikhail Podolyak, a senior adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, pushed back against the idea that any successor to Putin might turn out to be worse. “Sometimes one can hear an opinion from our western allies: whatever Putin may be, today he is the key guarantor of stability in the Russian powder keg. The events of recent days prove us otherwise.
“Putin’s state vertical is incurably sick, weak, fearful and ready for any concessions in order to preserve physical life and material assets. Any organised military group will be able to seize control without encountering resistance … This means the longer Putin remains a nominal president and the longer he drags out this absolutely catastrophic war for Russia, the greater the resulting risk of collapse, internal bloody wars with possible looting, including of weapons of mass destruction.”
This analysis amounts to a critique of a view expressed by some in the Biden administration that Moscow could respond with nuclear weapons, if Ukraine’s counteroffensive this year results in “catastrophic success”.
Podolyak argues that the reverse is true. He wants the US and its allies to give Ukraine everything it needs so it can “deal a final blow” to the Putin regime.
They believe a successor chosen by Russia’s elite will increase stability and lead to the country’s gradual post-Putin transformation.
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Prigozhin's rebellion is 'an unprecedented challenge to Putin'
James Cleverly, the UK foreign secretary, said the aborted mutiny by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, represented an unprecedented challenge to Vladimir Putin.
“Prigozhin’s rebellion is an unprecedented challenge to president Putin’s authority and it is clear cracks are emerging in Russian support for the war,” he told parliament.
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'Society demanded it,' says Prigozhin in first comments since abandoning mutiny
The Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has reappeared for the first time since abandoning his armed mutiny on Saturday evening, issuing a defiant 11-minute statement in which he defended the Wagner uprising and said that “society demanded it”.
In the statement, Prigozhin denied that Wagner sought to topple Putin and said that the uprising had shown that there were “serious problems with security on the whole territory of our country”.
“It was not our goal to overthrow the regime,” Prigozhin said in the voice memo, which was uploaded to his Concord Group’s Telegram page.
“We stopped at that moment, when it became clear that much blood would be spilled,” he continued, describing the progress of a military convoy that reached striking distance of Moscow. “That’s why we believe that the demonstration of what we were planning to do was enough. Our decision to turn back had two factors: we didn’t want to spill Russian blood. Secondly, we marched as a demonstration of our protest.”
He once again accused the Russian defence ministry of targeting his troops with artillery fire, calling it the “trigger for us to move out immediately”.
“The goal of the march was to not allow the destruction of the Wagner private military company and hold to account the officials who through their unprofessional actions have committed a massive number of errors. Society demanded it.”
Prigozhin acknowledged that his troops had killed Russian airmen during their uprising, saying they “regretted that they were required to carry out strikes against aircraft but they were hitting our forces with bombs and rocket strikes”.
He also claimed that the troops movement into Russia was a “masterclass” in how Russia should have carried out its 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which failed to achieve its goal of taking Kyiv.
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Prigozhin breaks silence on Wagner mutiny
Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has made his first comments since Saturday.
He said the “march” was to avoid the destruction of the private military group and that Wagner was bound to cease existence on 1 July, Reuters reports.
Mercenary leader Prigozhin said that it had been intended to register a protest at the ineffectual conduct of the war in Ukraine, not to overthrow the government in Moscow.
Prigozhin spoke in an 11-minute audio message released on the Telegram messaging app.
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Today, Justin Trudeau said the aborted mutiny in Russia was an internal issue for Moscow to work through.
“Everyone has a lot of questions about what this actually means, but we don’t yet have a lot of answers and too much speculation right now, I think, could probably be extremely counterproductive,” the Canadian prime minister told reporters in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland, after meeting leaders of Nordic countries.
Senior Russian officials rallied around President Vladimir Putin earlier, after the aborted mutiny by mercenaries that appeared to pose the greatest threat to his 23-year rule.
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Our video team has put together this series of clips that illustrate international reaction to the events in Russia at the weekend when Yevgeney Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group staged a mutiny.
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The Guardian’s Berlin correspondent reports from Germany:
Germany’s defence minister has announced that the country is planning to send several thousand troops to be stationed permanently in Lithuania as part of the international response to the threat that Russia poses for the country and the Baltic region.
Boris Pistorius said in a meeting in Vilnius before a Nato gathering there in two weeks, that Germany would contribute a “robust brigade”, of several thousand soldiers, who would be able to take their families with them.
Pistorius said he had agreed with his Lithuanian counterpart, Arvydas Anušauskas, that the brigade would be built up slowly in conjunction with the arrival of appropriate infrastructure. More details as to the timeframe, and the costs involved, are expected to follow.
Earlier on Monday, Der Spiegel reported that the government in Berlin was planning to provide Kyiv with a long-term supply of ammunition. A framework agreement regarding the manufacture of the ammunition was drawn up at the end of last week between the company Rheinmetall and the defence ministry, according to the report.
According to the contract, seen by Der Spiegel, the company is to produce and deliver 330,000 rounds of 155mm bullets, as well as thousands of Howitzer rounds, with the aim of providing a long-term supply to the Ukrainian armed forces. The €60m (£51.5m/$65.5m) cost for an initial 20,000 rounds, is to be shouldered by the German government.
Parallel to the deal, Germany’s own military will be provided with a similarly large amount of ammunition. Earlier this year the defence ministry admitted that Germany’s military was woefully under-equipped, with inadequate supplies of artillery and ammunition, and had yet to live up to specifications set for Nato members.
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Two killed in Russian artillery attack on Nikopol – regional governor
Serhiy Lysak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, reports that two people have been killed and another wounded in an attack on Nikopol. He posted to Telegram:
In the afternoon, the Rashists hit Nikopol with heavy artillery. A private enterprise was struck. Two employees were killed – a 51-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man.
Another 49-year-old man was injured. He has a mine-explosive injury and a shrapnel wound. He was hospitalised in moderate condition.
There is destruction. The consequences of the attack are being clarified.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Lysak’s post was accompanied by pictures of an industrial-looking building with shattered windows
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A Russian court said on Monday it had sentenced a scientist, Valery Golubkin, to 12 years in jail for treason after convicting him of handing over state secrets to “representatives of foreign organisations”.
Reuters reports Golubkin was detained in late 2020 on suspicion of handing over secrets to an unnamed Nato country. His lawyer said at the time that Golubkin denied the charges against him. Golubkin had worked in the department of theoretical and applied aerohydromechanics at the Moscow institute of physics and technology. The court provided no further details on the case.
A number of Russian scientists have been arrested and charged with treason in recent years on suspicion of passing sensitive material to foreigners. A criminal case was opened earlier this month against one of three Russian hypersonic missile scientists arrested on suspicion of treason.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Monday that the US ambassador to Moscow “gave signals” that the US was not involved in the Wagner armed mutiny and hoped for the safety of Russia’s nuclear arsenal, state news agency Tass reported.
Lavrov also quoted the US envoy as saying Saturday’s mutiny by the Wagner mercenaries was Russia’s internal affair, Tass reported.
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Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs has called on the US to speed up the training of fighter pilots give it the air force it needs in its defence and counter-offensive efforts against Russia.
Dmytro Kuleba also called for a global ban on dual use technologies that can be sold to Russia for drones but used for military operations.
Speaking to a summit of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg said the latest sanctions combined with the £3bn increases in EU contribution to its military operations and the arrival of fighter jets would “together … allow the liberation of all Ukrainian territories”.
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Ukraine expects to receive a clear invitation for simplified accession to Nato when the military alliance holds a summit next month in Lithuania, a senior official said on Monday.
Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential staff, reiterated Ukraine’s position on Nato accession in comments published after Russia thwarted a march by mercenaries heading towards Moscow at the weekend, Reuters reported.
“Ukraine’s position: the expected result is to receive an invitation for simplified accession at the summit in July. But, importantly, we would like to receive an absolutely clear signal that would establish Ukraine’s path to Nato membership,” he told a briefing for German media.
Russia has summoned Moldova’s ambassador in Moscow, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing the Russian foreign ministry.
It gave no immediate reason for the move, which comes amid strained ties between Moscow and Chişinău over Russia’s military actions in Ukraine, which borders Moldova.
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Ukrainian forces have liberated the south-eastern village of Rivnopil from Russian control, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said on Monday.
Rivnopil lies west of a cluster of settlements that Ukraine said it recaptured from Russian forces earlier this month after launching a counteroffensive.
“Defence forces have brought Rivnopil back under our control. We are moving ahead,” Maliar wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Maliar said in an earlier statement that Ukrainian forces had liberated about 130 sq km (50 sq miles) in the south since Ukraine since the counterattack began.
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'Too early' to predict consequences of aborted Wagner uprising but UK prepared for range of scenarios, prime minister says
Britain is prepared for a range of scenarios in Russia, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday, noting the potentially destabilising impact of the tensions between the Wagner group and President Vladimir Putin.
Putin faced an unprecedented challenge to his authority over the weekend from an abortive mutiny by heavily armed mercenary fighters from the Wagner group, Reuters reported.
The extraordinary events left governments, both friendly and hostile to Russia, groping for answers to what could happen next in the country with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.
Sunak said Britain was monitoring events carefully.
“It’s too early to predict with certainty what the consequences of this might be, but of course we are prepared as we always would be for a range of scenarios,” Sunak told reporters.
“It’s a situation that we’ve been analysing and monitoring for some time because we’re aware of the potentially destabilising impact of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine and indeed, the tensions between the Wagner group and the Putin regime.”
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Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, has characterised Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion against the Russian president as an anticipated outcome resulting from the empowerment of the mercenary figurehead.
Prigozhin mutiny was monster acting against his creator, says top EU diplomat
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny in Russia was “the monster acting against his creator”, the EU’s foreign policy chief has said.
“The political system is showing fragilities, and the military power is cracking,” Josep Borrell told reporters in Luxembourg as he arrived for a meeting with ministers from across the 27-member bloc.
Wagner group mercenary forces under Prigozhin seized control of military headquarters in southern Russia and began to move towards Moscow on Saturday before suddenly heading back to eastern Ukraine after a deal with the Kremlin.
“The most important conclusion is the war against Ukraine launched by Putin and the monster that Putin created with Wagner, the monster is fighting, the monster is acting against his creator,” Borrell said.
Summary of the day so far …
Russia’s defence minister has appeared on state TV and emergency counter-terrorism measures have been cancelled in Moscow and surrounding regions as the Kremlin seeks to restore calm following Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny.
The defence ministry released footage on Monday that it claimed showed Sergei Shoigu “visiting the forward command post of one of the formations of the ‘Western’ group of troops”. In the video, Shoigu is shown riding in a vehicle and arriving at a command post, where he listens to reports from officers and pores over a battlefield map. The video was released without sound and it was unclear when and where it was filmed, nonetheless, the footage showed tacit government support for Shoigu, whom Prigozhin had sought to oust with his uprising.
The Wagner chief has not been seen or heard from since he left Rostov with his troops on Saturday evening with an apparent deal offering him amnesty and exile in Belarus, however, Russian state-owned media reports that a criminal investigation into his actions has not ended.
The rebellion by the Wagner mercenary group in Russia demonstrates that Moscow has committed a strategic mistake by waging war on Ukraine, Nato secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Monday. “The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President Vladimir Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine,” he told reporters on a visit to Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius.
Events over the weekend show that Russia’s military power is “cracking” and the “monster Putin has created is turning against him”, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, has said. But he warned that the instability in Russia was dangerous for Europe and must be taken into account in the coming days and weeks.
The weekend’s events have “exposed the weakness of Putin’s regime”, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said, saying he had discussed the turmoil in Russia in a phone call with the US president, Joe Biden. In a statement, Zelenskiy called for global pressure to be exerted on Russia and said that he and Biden had also discussed expanding defence cooperation with an emphasis on long-range weapons.
The Russian rouble opened at a near 15-month low against the dollar in early morning trade on Monday, responding for the first time to the Wagner mutiny.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported that Russia attacked Ukraine overnight from the south with three Kalibr cruise missiles and eight Shahed drones – two missiles and seven drones were shot down. Also, it claimed, four drones of an unknown type were launched from the north, and all of them were shot down.
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Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the EU on Monday to “accelerate Russia’s defeat” by stepping up support for Ukraine.
Reuters reports Kuleba, who was attending a meeting with EU foreign ministers, said on Twitter the fact that tanks had moved towards Moscow during a thwarted coup showed that “Ukraine will win”.
Criminal investigation into Prigozhin continues – Russian media reports
RIA Novosti, the Russian state-owned news agency, is reporting that the criminal case against Yevgeny Prigozhin over the mutiny has not been dropped. It was reported at the weekend that investigation into him would be closed as part of the deal that brought the march on Moscow to an end. RIA posted to Telegram to say:
The criminal case against Prigozhin has not been terminated, a source in the prosecutor general’s office told RIA Novosti.
Nato's Stoltenberg: mutiny shows Putin made 'big strategic mistake' in annexing Crimea and invading Ukraine
The aborted mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group in Russia demonstrates that Moscow committed a strategic mistake by waging war on Ukraine, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.
“The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President [Vladimir] Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine,” he told reporters on a visit to Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.
Reuters reports he added: “As Russia continues its assault, it is even more important to continue our support to Ukraine.”
Updated
A couple of prominent Russian military bloggers on Telegram have suggested that defence minister Sergei Shoigu was known to be visiting the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine on Friday, and that the images and video released today by the Russian defence ministry may date from that trip, which would have occurred before the Wagner mutiny.
Nevertheless, at the FT’s Moscow bureau chief Max Seddon notes, the fact the video has been released is clearly intended to send a signal about the status of Shoigu.
Rybar, a popular pro-war blog, says Shoigu visited Belgorod region before Prigozhin's uprising and this is likely from that trip.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) June 26, 2023
Whether or not that's true, it's still significant they put it out – it shows Shoigu (apparently) still has Putin's backinghttps://t.co/CZwqbKCn0q
Here are some of the images released officially by Russia which they claim show defence minister Sergei Shoigu visiting occupied Ukraine.
The location and date the video was taken are unverified.
Events over the weekend show that Russia’s military power is “cracking” and the “monster Putin has created is turning against him”, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell has said.
But he warned that the instability in Russia was dangerous and must be taken into account in the coming days and weeks.
“What is happening in Russia, it is important to understand that this is cracking the Russian military power and affecting its political system. And certainly it is not it’s not a good thing to see that a nuclear power like Russia is going into a phase of political instability,” he said on arrival at a summit of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
“The most important conclusion is the war against Ukraine launched by Putin and the monster that Putin created with Wagner, the monster is fighting, the monster is acting against his creator. The political system it’s showing its fragilities and the military power is cracking,” he added.
The cancelled mutiny in Russia will be top of the agenda at the Luxembourg summit of ministers who are expected to rapprove a pledge to give more funds to Ukraine’s military option.
They are also expected to approve the 11th round of sanctions against Russia, aimed at stopping Putin circumventing previous sanctions by using third countries to shop crude oil and other products around the world.
Updated
Citing Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency, Reuters reports that Russian security forces claim to have detained a Russian citizen on charges of sending money to Ukraine to buy drones and military equipment.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, offers this round-up of overnight news from Ukraine:
At night, Russia attacked Ukraine from the south with three Kalibr cruise missiles and eight Shahed drones – two missiles and seven drones were shot down. Also, four drones of an unknown type were launched from the north, all of them were shot down.
Air defence forces were working in Odesa, one missile and a drone hit “certain objects” in the region the spokesperson for the air force command of the armed forces of Ukraine, said. There were no reports of injuries.
At dawn, Russian troops dropped prohibited incendiary shells on Kherson and Antonivka, fires broke out. Olhivka was also hit at night, one person was injured.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Moscow mayor ends emergency 'counter-terrorism' measures imposed after Wagner rebellion
Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said he was cancelling the counter-terrorism regime imposed in the Russian capital during what the authorities on Saturday called an armed mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group.
Sobyanin made the announcement in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging application on Monday, in which he thanked residents for their “calmness and understanding.”
Reuters reports that separately, Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said the situation in the country was “stable”.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
More than 17,000 Ukrainian recruits have been trained by Britain and other allies over the last year to help fight Russia’s invasion, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Monday, according to AFP.
The recruits, from many different walks of life, all went through a “gruelling” five-week programme which the ministry said had transformed them “from civilians to soldiers”.
Britain and nine partner nations – Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania and the Netherlands – opened the initiative for new volunteer recruits to the armed forces of Ukraine in June last year.
The UK-led training programme, dubbed Operation Interflex, taught the recruits, who had little to no previous military experience, various skills including weapons handling, battlefield first aid and patrol tactics.
“The determination and resilience of the Ukrainian recruits that arrive on British soil, from all walks of life, to train to fight alongside our British and international forces, is humbling to witness,” the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said.
“The UK and our international partners will continue to provide this vital support, helping Ukraine defend against Russian aggression, for as long as it takes.”
Britain initially offered to train up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers in battlefield skills, based on the UK’s basic soldier training.
The programme has now been extended and is on track to train about 30,000 recruits by 2024, according to the British defence ministry.
It said intelligence had shown that the training made “a significant difference to the combat effectiveness of Ukraine”.
“The UK armed forces maintains close communication with Ukraine to improve and evolve the course based on the skills most needed on the battlefield,” the ministry added.
Updated
China downplays Wagner rebellion, media describes it as 'illusion' exploited by west
Chinese officials have described the abandoned Wagner rebellion as Moscow’s “internal affairs”, while one state media mouthpiece dismissed the divisions in Russia as an “illusion” being exploited by the west.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko held previously unannounced talks in Beijing on Sunday. It was not clear if they had been planned in advance or came as a result of the Wagner mutiny.
China’s foreign ministry said it supported Russia in maintaining its national stability, without explicitly referring to Putin’s leadership.
“As a friendly neighbour and comprehensive strategic partner in the new era, China supports Russia in maintaining national stability and achieving development and prosperity,” it said.
Updated
It’s still unclear exactly what the terms of the deal to end the rebellion mean for Wagner, but the ISW suggests that the fact that Wagner troops are returning to base with their equipment means that the Kremlin intends to maintain at least elements of the group, rather than immediately demobilising them.
It noted that the head of the Duma defence committee, Andrei Kartapolov, on Sunday announced it was working on a law to regulate private military companies but emphasised it was not necessary to ban the Wagner Group as it is “the most combat-ready unit in Russia.”
He also said that Wagner forces in Rostov were “following orders of their command” and “did nothing reprehensible.”
Kartapolov’s efforts to absolve Wagner personnel of responsibility for taking part in an armed rebellion and separate them from Prigozhin may indicate the Russian government’s desire to continue to use Wagner personnel in some capacity, and as ISW assessed on June 24, the Russian leadership could redeploy Wagner to Ukraine or instead commit them to international missions
Updated
Ukraine has reclaimed some 130 square kilometres (50 square miles) from Russian forces along the southern front line since the start of the counteroffensive, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has said according to Reuters.
“The situation in the south has not undergone significant changes over the past week,” Maliar told the national broadcaster.
She added that along the eastern part of the front line, which includes the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka directions, about 250 combat clashes had taken place over the past week.
A bit more context on Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister who in many ways was at the centre of the Wagner rebellion.
As the Guardian’s Pjotr Sauer explained in this report on Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s accusations against the leadership of the Russian military, the pair have been at loggerheads for months.
Prigozhin has repeatedly accused the defence ministry of denying him the ammunition his men needed in Ukraine and of sacrificing Russian soldiers in missions doomed to fail.
But in a series of audio messages beginning on Thursday and continuing on Friday, Prigozhin also accused the ministry of lying to the public about its justifications for invading Ukraine.
The invasion had nothing to do with denazifying Ukraine nor was it launched because Ukraine was about to attack Russia – rather it was due to Shoigu’s desire for a second “hero of Russia” medal, he said.
“What was the war for? The war needed for Shoigu to receive a hero star … The oligarchic clan that rules Russia needed the war,” Prigozhin said.
“The mentally ill scumbags decided: ‘It’s OK, we’ll throw in a few thousand more Russian men as cannon fodder. They’ll die under artillery fire, but we’ll get what we want,’” Prigozhin continued.
Updated
The Kremlin “likely risks Prigozhin’s armed rebellion expanding the window of acceptable anti-Kremlin criticism,” the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest analysis, particularly if the Kremlin does not retaliate further against the Wagner leader.
The US thinktank used the example of a pre-planned meeting by the ultranationalist Angry Patriots Club in Moscow on Sunday, at which former Russian officer Igor Girkin reiterated that Putin needs to legally transfer certain presidential authorities to other parties if he is unwilling to assume control over the war in Ukraine as the supreme commander-in-chief.
Officials were likely aware of the event as the club had been promoting it for weeks, the ISW noted, adding:
If the Kremlin intends to use Prigozhin’s rebellion as pretext to start immediately suppressing antagonistic ultranationalists, then this event would have likely been a prime candidate to start that effort ...
The Kremlin’s continued careful response to the armed rebellion will likely prompt other Russian nationalists to test Russian official reactions to more explicitly critical rhetoric.
The Australian government has pledged a new $110m military assistance package in the next round of support for Ukraine, including vehicles, ammunition and humanitarian funding.
“This package responds to Ukraine’s requests for vehicles and ammunition, and will make a tangible difference on the battlefield,” the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said in a statement.
Canberra has committed 70 military vehicles, including 28 M113 armoured vehicles, 14 special operations vehicles, 28 MAN 40M medium trucks and 14 trailers; a new supply of 105mm artillery ammunition; and $10m to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – for the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund – to assist in the provision of shelter, health services, water and sanitation.
“We support international efforts to ensure [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s aggression fails and that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity prevails,” Albanese said.
The government said the latest commitment took Australia’s total contribution to Ukraine to $790m, including $610m in military assistance.
Video released of Russian defence minister Shoigu visiting troops in Ukraine
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has visited troops in Ukraine, Russian news agency Ria has reported, his first public appearance since the Wagner mutiny at the weekend.
Shoigu has not commented on the rebellion, during which Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin demanded that the defence minister meet him in Rostov before calling off the mutiny.
In a post on Telegram, Ria reported that Shoigu met Colonel-General Nikiforov, commander of the ‘western’ grouping:
The minister also paid special attention to the organization of support for the troops involved in the special military operation and the creation of conditions for the safe deployment of personnel.
In a video released by the Russian defence ministry, Shoigu is described as being in the western sector of the “special military operation” – Russia’s preferred term for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. There is nothing in the video which gives an indication of where or when it was filmed.
Updated
Russian rouble at weakest point since March 2022
The Russian rouble has opened at a near 15-month low against the dollar in early morning trade on Monday, responding for the first time to the Wagner mutiny, according to Reuters.
By 0415 GMT, the rouble was 2.1% weaker against the dollar at 86.50, after earlier hitting 87.2300, its weakest point since late March 2022. It had lost 2.2% to trade at 94.37 versus the euro and shed 2.1% against the yuan to 11.95.
More from Reuters:
With the rouble not trading over the weekend, Russian banks were offering exchange rates well above official rate beyond 90 to the dollar.
Monday’s full trading session begins at 0700 GMT. Investors globally were watching for ripple effects from the aborted mutiny, with some expecting a move into safe havens such as US government bonds and the dollar.
Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia’s main export, was up 0.2% at $74.03 a barrel.
Ukraine advances up to 1km near Bakhmut
Ukraine’s military says it has advanced between 600 metres and 1,000 metres on the southern and northern flanks around Bakhmut, the city which was taken by Wagner forces in May.
The military also reported advances in the area on Saturday, as Wagner forces were marching on Moscow. It was not possible to verify the reports.
AFP reported fierce clashes in the area on Sunday, with Ukrainian soldiers telling the news agency that the Wagner mutiny had not noticeably affected fighting in the area.
“As it attacked yesterday, Russia continued to attack today,” one soldier said, adding. “Most people, most military, understand very well that the circus from Russia is still here.” Another said that for Ukraine, the fighting was going “according to plan”.
Kyiv has said that the unrest in Russia offered a “window of opportunity” for its long-awaited counter-offensive.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine and the crisis in Russia.
Ukraine’s military says it has advanced between 600 metres and 1,000 metres on the southern and northern flanks around Bakhmut, the city which was taken by Wagner forces in May. The military also reported advances in the area on Saturday, as Wagner forces were marching on Moscow. It was not possible to verify the reports.
AFP reported fierce clashes in the area on Sunday, with Ukrainian soldiers telling the news agency that the Wagner mutiny had not noticeably affected fighting in the area. “As it attacked yesterday, Russia continued to attack today,” one soldier said, while another said that for Ukraine, the fighting was going “according to plan”.
The Russian rouble has opened at a near 15-month low against the dollar in early morning trading on Monday, responding for the first time to the rebellion.
At 0402 GMT, the rouble was 2.1% weaker against the dollar at 86.37, hitting 86.8800 on market opening, its weakest point since late March 2022, Reuters reported.
In other key developments:
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said the Wagner uprising showed “real cracks” in Vladimir Putin’s government and may offer Ukraine a crucial advantage as it conducts a counteroffensive that could influence the outcome of the war. “This is an unfolding story and I think we’re in the midst of a moving picture,” Blinken told the CBS News programme Face the Nation. “We haven’t seen the last act.”
There has been no word from Putin or Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin since the rebellion ended and their whereabouts are unclear. Putin appeared on Russian state TV on Sunday but the comments appeared to have been recorded before the mutiny. In an interview broadcast on state television he made no reference to the rebellion but renewed his commitment to the war in Ukraine, calling the “special military operation” his top priority.
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda warned that Nato would need to strengthen its eastern flank if Prigozhin is exiled to Belarus as agreed with Moscow. Following a state security council meeting on the mercenary group’s attempt to revolt against Russian military leadership, Nausėda said: “If Prigozhin or part of the Wagner group ends up in Belarus with unclear plans and unclear intentions, it will only mean that we need to further strengthen the security of our eastern borders.”
State television also said Putin would attend a meeting of Russia’s Security Council this week, without elaborating. Belarus’ Belta news agency said Putin and President Alexander Lukashenko, who negotiated with Prigozhin to end the mutiny, spoke again on Sunday, after at least two calls on Saturday.
The weekend’s events have “exposed the weakness of Putin’s regime”, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said, saying he had discussed the turmoil in Russia in a phone call with the US president, Joe Biden. In a statement, Zelenskiy called for global pressure to be exerted on Russia and said that he and Biden had also discussed expanding defence cooperation with an emphasis on long-range weapons.
The Ukrainian president said he had also held “positive conversations” with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and Polish president Andrzej Duda. They discussed “hostilities on the frontline” and the “further strengthening of Ukrainian troops”.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said that the revolt highlighted divisions within the Russian government. Speaking to the Provence newspaper on Sunday, Macron said that Wagner’s march to Moscow “shows the divisions that exist within the Russian camp, and the fragility of both its military and its auxiliary forces.”
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said he spoke to US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday, and described the Russian authorities as “weak”. Reznikov wrote on Twitter: “We talked about recent events in Russia. We agree that the Russian authorities are weak and that withdrawing Russian troops from Ukraine is the best choice for the Kremlin. Russia would be better served to address its own issues.”
Russian officials said that houses and roads had been damaged because of the rebellion by the Wagner mercenaries. Nineteen houses had been damaged in the village of Yelizavetovka as a result of a firefight involving Wagner forces while about 10,000 square metres of roads in Rostov had been damaged by tank tracks.
