Closing Summary
It is midnight in Kyiv. Here is a roundup of the day’s key events:
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he discussed the weekend’s turmoil in Russia in a phone call with the US president, Joe Biden, on Sunday and that the events had exposed the weakness of Vladimir Putin’s rule. 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.
Over the course of a day, the Ukrainian military allegedly advanced from 600 metres to 1,000 metres on the southern and northern flanks around Bakhmut, Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the eastern group of forces, told Ukrainian news agencies. On Saturday afternoon, while Prigozhin was moving towards the Kremlin, the Ukraine military reported an offensive near the villages surrounding Bakhmut, taken by Wagner forces in May, after months of fighting.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, held a phone call with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, saying that he was “grateful for [Trudeau’s] recent visit to Kyiv and to Canada and all Canadians for their continued support of Ukraine.” In a statement on Twitter, Zelenskiy wrote: “I spoke about the current situation on the battlefield and shared [Ukraine’s] assessments of the attempted coup in [Russia] and the impact of this situation on the course of hostilities.”
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said that the revolt lead by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group against the country’s leadership highlights divisions within the Russian government. Speaking to the Provence newspaper on Sunday, Macron said that Wagner’s march to Moscow, which came to an abrupt halt over the weekend, “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 that he had a conversation with US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday, describing 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.”
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda warned that Nato will need to strengthen its eastern flank if Belarus becomes the new host of Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin. 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.”
Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has agreed to leave Russia and ordered his fighters to withdraw from Rostov and halt their march on Moscow, under the terms of a deal negotiated by Belarus.
President Vladimir Putin has appeared on Russian state TV for the first time since the armed rebellion threatened to topple his regime, though the comments appear to have been recorded before the mutiny. Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko spoke again by phone on Sunday morning, Belarus’ Belta news agency reported.
US spy agencies picked up information suggesting Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning to take action against Russia’s military leadership as early as mid-June, US media has reported.
Russian president Vladimir Putin is “obviously very afraid” and “probably hiding”, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in his latest evening address.
All transport restrictions in Russia’s Rostov region – which was controlled by Wagner mutineers on Saturday - have been lifted, including those on highways, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing local officials.
An adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister has described the Wagner rebellion in Russia as “the most ridiculous attempt at mutiny” ever.
There has been no change in the US nuclear posture after an armed rebellion in Russia, America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said. He added that the Wagner uprising was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we close the blog for today. Thank you for following along.
Here is the full statement released by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on his call with the US president, Joe Biden, earlier today:
I spoke with President @POTUS. A positive and inspiring conversation.
We discussed the course of hostilities and the processes taking place in Russia. The world must put pressure on Russia until international order is restored.
I thanked the @POTUS for the unflagging support of Ukraine, especially for Patriots.
It is important to further increase Ukraine’s capabilities to protect our skies. In this context, I also thanked him for the support of the fighter jet coalition.
We discussed further expansion of defense cooperation, with an emphasis on long-range weapons.
I am grateful for the readiness of the US and the American people to stand side by side with Ukraine until the full liberation of all our territories within internationally recognized borders.
We coordinated our positions on the eve of the @NATO Summit in Vilnius, discussed further work on the implementation of Peace Formula and preparations for the Global Peace Summit.
I held the first of a series of important phone calls - with 🇨🇦 Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 25, 2023
I’m grateful to him for his recent visit to Kyiv and to Canada and all Canadians for their continued support of Ukraine.
I spoke about the current situation on the battlefield and…
Updated
Following several whirlwind news cycles and a tense weekend, Russian authorities have told journalists to take a day off.
Agence France-Presse reports:
Knackered after covering a stunning march on Moscow by a small army of mercenaries? Take a day off after a “tense” weekend, Russian authorities told journalists on Sunday.
An armed rebellion by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had vowed on Friday to topple the Russian military leadership and begun a march on Moscow, sparked the country’s largest political crisis in decades and prompted many newsrooms to work around the clock.
Moscow authorities introduced “anti-terror” measures and said residents will have a day off on Monday, even though Wagner chief Prigozhin suddenly aborted his revolt on Saturday evening.
On Sunday, the Russian ministry of digital development also pitched in with recommendations, saying journalists and IT workers should take a day to rest.
“Saturday was a very emotional and tense day,” the ministry of digital development, communications and mass media said in a statement on social media.
“We recommend giving employees of IT and telecom companies and media a day off.”
The ministry singled out employees of companies working round-the-clock and media workers, who operated in regions “at the epicentre of the events”, saying they needed an opportunity to rest.
“Many employees of the digital development ministry spent the weekend at their workplace,” the statement said, “so we also made this decision for our employees.”
Updated
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks with US president Joe Biden
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he discussed the weekend’s turmoil in Russia in a phone call with the US president, Joe Biden, on Sunday and that the events had exposed the weakness of Vladimir Putin’s rule, Reuters reports.
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.
Updated
Over the course of a day, the Ukrainian military allegedly advanced from 600 metres to 1,000 metres on the southern and northern flanks around Bakhmut, Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the eastern group of forces, told Ukrainian news agencies.
While Putin was forced to watch his back, Ukraine seemed to have stepped up its counteroffensive.
On Saturday afternoon, while Prigozhin was moving towards the Kremlin, the Ukraine military reported an offensive near the villages surrounding Bakhmut, taken by Wagner forces in May, after months of fighting.
In the evening, Oleksandr Tarnavsky, a Ukrainian commander, told the national news agency of Ukraine, Ukrinform, that its forces had liberated territories near the city of Krasnohorivka, in the Donetsk region, which pro-Russia separatists have occupied since 2014.
Updated
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, held a phone call with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, saying that he was “grateful for [Trudeau’s] recent visit to Kyiv and to Canada and all Canadians for their continued support of Ukraine”.
In a statement on Twitter, Zelenskiy wrote:
I spoke about the current situation on the battlefield and shared [Ukraine’s] assessments of the attempted coup in [Russia] and the impact of this situation on the course of hostilities.
I drew @JustinTrudeau’s attention to the threatening situation created by the occupation troops at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Insufficient reaction of the world to the blowing up of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam and the attempt to blow up the dam at the Kryvyi Rih reservoir allows the occupiers to prepare a terrorist attack with radiation leakage at the ZNPP.
Partners of Ukraine must demonstrate a principled response, in particular at the @NATO Summit in Vilnius.
I held the first of a series of important phone calls - with 🇨🇦 Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 25, 2023
I’m grateful to him for his recent visit to Kyiv and to Canada and all Canadians for their continued support of Ukraine.
I spoke about the current situation on the battlefield and…
Updated
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said that the revolt lead by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group against the country’s leadership highlights divisions within the Russian government.
Speaking to the Provence newspaper on Sunday, Macron said that Wagner’s march to Moscow, which came to an abrupt halt over the weekend, “shows the divisions that exist within the Russian camp, and the fragility of both its military and its auxillary forces.”
He said “the situation is still developing” and that he was “following the events hour by hour”, adding:
All this should make us very vigilant, and fully justifies the support that we are giving to the Ukrainians in their resistance.
Updated
Rebellion shows Russian authorities are 'weak', says Ukraine's defence minister
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said that he had a conversation with US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday, describing 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.
We also discussed the #UAarmy‘s counteroffensive and the next steps in strengthening our Defence Forces. Things are moving in the right direction. Ukraine will win.
Had a phone conversation with my friend and colleague @SecDef Lloyd Austin III.
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) June 25, 2023
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… pic.twitter.com/HHrRgV6kas
Updated
Two civilians were killed on Sunday in Donetsk after shelling by Ukrainian forces, the Russian-installed mayor Alexei Kulemzin said on Telegram, Reuters reports.
According to Kulemzin, a male victim born in 2005 and a woman born in 1956 died due to enemy fire.
Reuters was unable immediately to verify the report.
Earlier, a civilian man died as a result of Russian forces’ shelling on the southern city of Kherson, according to the local governor.
Updated
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda warned that Nato will need to strengthen its eastern flank if Belarus becomes the new host of Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin.
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.
I am not only talking about Lithuania here, but without a doubt the whole of Nato.
Nauseda went on to say that his country will devote further intelligence capabilities to examine the “political and security aspects of Belarus”, Reuters reports.
Lithuania will hold the Nato summit next month and said that the general security plan for the meeting will not change following the recent developments in Russia.
The president went on to say that he believed Russian president Vladimir Putin may face further challenges to his leadership.
“The king is naked,” Nauseda said.
Updated
A summary of today's developents
Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has agreed to leave Russia and ordered his fighters to withdraw from Rostov and halt their march on Moscow, under the terms of a deal negotiated by Belarus.
President Vladimir Putin has appeared on Russian state TV for the first time since the armed rebellion threatened to topple his regime, though the comments appear to have been recorded before the mutiny. Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko spoke again by phone on Sunday morning, Belarus’ Belta news agency reported.
US spy agencies picked up information suggesting Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning to take action against Russia’s military leadership as early as mid-June, US media has reported.
Russian president Vladimir Putin is “obviously very afraid” and “probably hiding”, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in his latest evening address.
The Kremlin struggled to put together a coherent response to the Wagner mutiny “highlighting internal security weaknesses likely due to surprise and the impact of heavy losses in Ukraine,” the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest analysis of the conflict.
All transport restrictions in Russia’s Rostov region – which was controlled by Wagner mutineers on Saturday - have been lifted, including those on highways, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing local officials.
An adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister has described the Wagner rebellion in Russia as “the most ridiculous attempt at mutiny” ever.
There has been no change in the US nuclear posture after an armed rebellion in Russia, America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said. He added that the Wagner uprising was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction.
Part of Dmitry Kiselyov’s Russian state TV programme has been tweeted by Francis Scarr from BBC Monitoring.
Kiselyov said the swift resolution of the Wagner Group’s mutiny shows Russia is a united nation.
He also played an archive clip of Vladimir Putin saying he is able to forgive many things, but not “betrayal”.
In his flagship Sunday night news show, state TV’s Dmitry Kiselyov claimed the resolution to the Wagner mutiny demonstrated that Russia is a united nation
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) June 25, 2023
He also dug up an old clip of Putin saying that he is able to forgive many things, but not "betrayal" pic.twitter.com/mHTW8JRiSR
Updated
US house of representatives intelligence committee chairman, Mike Turner, said Vladimir Putin’s future actions in Ukraine could be inhibited by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s assertion that the rationale for invading Ukraine was based on lies concocted by the Russian top brass.
“Taking down the very premise makes it much more difficult for Putin to continue to turn to the Russian people and say, we should continue to send people to die,” Turner told CBS’ Face the Nation program.
Republican representative, Don Bacon, a former US air force general who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, told NBC the weekend turmoil could leave Russia weaker for years, calling it a benefit to neighbouring countries including Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
“It would be different if Putin was wanting to be a peaceful neighbour. But he’s not,” Bacon said.
Updated
Updated
Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko spoke again by phone on Sunday morning, Belarus’ Belta news agency reported.
The two men spoke at least twice on Saturday. Lukashenko brokered a deal with Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin who had agreed to de-escalate the situation and move to Belarus.
Updated
What next for Yevgeny Prigozhin?
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday that the Wagner head had agreed to leave Russia for Belarus as part of a deal to end his armed revolt, while charges against him for organising the rebellion would be dropped. Peskov added that Vladimir Putin and the Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, had guaranteed Prigozhin’s personal safety.
The warlord’s current whereabouts is unknown. He was last seen leaving the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don late on Saturday to a rapturous reception, with crowds of men gathering around him.
In an audio message shortly before his departure from the city, Prigozhin made no mention of an exile to Belarus, instead saying that he had ordered his troops back to their field camps in Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine, where they have been fighting alongside Russian regular soldiers.
Updated
For nearly 24 hours, millions of Ukrainians believed that the war with Russia might be nearing its conclusion. From 9am on Friday, when Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced his march on Moscow, until 8pm on Saturday, when mercenary troops with their tanks and armoured vehicles were just over 180 miles (300km) from the Russian capital, the battered country glimpsed the end of Putin’s regime.
Then, suddenly, when the Russian warlord called off his advance, the revived enthusiasm quickly ebbed away, giving way to disappointment and frustration, with many refusing to believe the Belarusian-brokered deal to end the armed uprising was real.
“I had positive feelings,” said Serhii, 27, from Kyiv. “There was hope at first, there was hope for a coup. Hope that it will all be over. Hope that there was going to be a change of power in Russia and a troops withdrawal from Ukraine. Then, suddenly that was it! End of the movie. Nothing happened ... I felt so disappointed.”
Read more reactions from Ukrainians who spoke to Lorenzo:
Updated
Here is a summary of today's developments:
The Wagner leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has agreed to leave Russia and ordered his fighters to withdraw from Rostov and halt their march on Moscow, under the terms of a deal negotiated by Belarus.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has appeared on Russian state TV for the first time since the armed rebellion threatened to topple his regime, though the comments appear to have been recorded before the mutiny.
US spy agencies picked up information suggesting Prigozhin was planning to take action against Russia’s military leadership as early as mid-June, US media has reported.
Putin is “obviously very afraid” and “probably hiding”, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said in his latest evening address.
The Kremlin struggled to put together a coherent response to the Wagner mutiny “highlighting internal security weaknesses likely due to surprise and the impact of heavy losses in Ukraine”, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest analysis of the conflict.
All transport restrictions in Russia’s Rostov region – which was controlled by Wagner mutineers on Saturday – have been lifted, including those on highways, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing local officials.
An adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister has described the Wagner rebellion in Russia as “the most ridiculous attempt at mutiny” ever.
There has been no change in the US nuclear posture after an armed rebellion in Russia, America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said. He added that the Wagner uprising was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction.
Updated
China on Sunday said it supported Russia in “protecting national stability”, in Beijing’s first official remarks on a short-lived armed uprising led by the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“As a friendly neighbour and a new era comprehensive strategic cooperative partner, China supports Russia in protecting national stability and achieving development and prosperity,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The issue was Russia’s “internal affair”, the ministry added.
Beijing had until late Sunday refrained from commenting on the weekend’s turmoil in Russia, which saw the mutiny’s leader agree to go into exile after President Vladimir Putin was forced to accept an amnesty deal.
China earlier made no comment on the rebellion that Putin said threatened Russia’s very existence while western leaders including the US president, Joe Biden, said they were closely monitoring the situation.
“China will support Russia while stressing no interference of its internal affairs,” the prominent Chinese military expert and TV commentator Song Zhongping told Reuters.
On Sunday, China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko in Beijing.
The two diplomats discussed “China-Russia relations”, Beijing said, as well as “international and regional issues of common concern”.
Updated
Ukraine steps up counteroffensive in wake of aborted Wagner uprising
While Putin was forced to watch his back, Ukraine seemed to have stepped up its counteroffensive.
On Saturday afternoon, while Prigozhin was moving towards the Kremlin, the Ukraine military reported an offensive near the villages surrounding Bakhmut, taken by Wagner forces in May, after months of fighting. In the evening, Oleksandr Tarnavsky, a Ukrainian commander, told the national news agency of Ukraine, Ukrinform, that its forces had liberated territories near the city of Krasnohorivka, in the Donetsk region, which pro-Russia separatists have occupied since 2014.
The sudden resumption of Ukrainian attacks on the day of the attempted coup was confirmed on Sunday by Russia’s defence ministry, which said it had repelled attempted attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported. The ministry said it had also repelled 10 attacks in the Bakhmut area, abandoned by the Wagner troops.
Some political analysts fear that a wounded Putin could become a more dangerous Putin. But in Kyiv, on Sunday morning, the feeling was that something had changed since yesterday.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a key adviser to Zelenskiy, said: “The situation inside Russia is uncontrollable, the flimsy structure is held together by inertia on a wing and a prayer.”
“Meanwhile,” he added, “forecasters predict new gusts of wind ...”
Updated
US secretary of state declines to 'speculate' on whereabouts of Putin after mutiny
The US secretary of state has declined to “speculate” on the whereabouts of Vladimir Putin following an armed rebellion in Russia.
Speculation was rampant online during the Wagner mercenary fighters’ mutiny that Putin may have left Moscow. Flight data showing his presidential plane on the move added to the uncertainty.
Today, footage of Putin was released on Russian state TV, but it was reportedly recorded prior to the uprising led by the Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
During a series of media interviews, Antony Blinken was asked on CBS News where the Russian president might be right now and whether he was in Moscow.
"I think you've seen cracks emerge that weren't there before."
— CNN (@CNN) June 25, 2023
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with CNN's Dana Bash on the abandoned mutiny of the Wagner Group in Russia and what this could mean for Russian President Vladimir Putin. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/lQnU5UYuFs
“I don’t want to speculate on that, or what information that we have,” Blinken responded. “Again, we’re watching that carefully.”
“I think one of the things this tells you is that we still don’t have finality in terms of what was actually agreed between Prigozhin and Putin.
“I suspect that we’re going to learn more in the days and weeks ahead about what deal they struck.”
Blinken told CNN that the mutiny over the weekend was “extraordinary” and “raises lots of questions”.
“I think we are seeing cracks emerged that were not there before,” Blinken added.
He pointed out that 16 months previously, Russian forces had expected to take Kyiv “in a matter of days”. “Now, they have to be focused on defending Moscow – Russia’s capital – against mercenaries and Putin’s own men.”
Updated
The Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, has emerged as an early beneficiary of the aborted Wagner march on Moscow, but those benefits may not have a long shelf life.
Whether or not Lukashenko played quite the enterprising broker’s role described in the statements coming out of the Kremlin and Minsk (and most analysts are sceptical) he has emerged in the Russian press as the hero of the hour, the man who saved Moscow.
That is very much a step up from the part of a frail provisional satrap, which Lukashenko has played since Vladimir Putin stepped in to save his regime in the wake of apparent election defeat in 2020.
Read Julian’s full assessment of Lukashenko’s changing fortunes:
Updated
“What happened in Russia doesn’t make any sense” Yuriy Sak, an adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister told Sky News.
He said it “feels very bizarre” that the Wagner rebels were able to get so close to Moscow before “nothing happened”.
Sak said there were “more questions than answers to what happened yesterday in Russia”.
He stressed that “for us, every participant in yesterday’s charade is a terrorist and a war criminal” and called the armed rebellion “infighting between different factions of a terrorist regime”.
"What happened in Russia doesn't make any sense"
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 25, 2023
Yuriy Sak, Adviser to the Ukrainian Defence Minister says there are "more questions than answers to what happened yesterday in Russia"
Latest: https://t.co/jzRyx4PPpr
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/mV3xJwD8qy
Updated
On Saturday in Copenhagen, as the world trained its eyes on the apparent imminent collapse of Vladimir Putin’s regime, a gathering of senior government security advisers from the global south and the west met with Ukraine’s leadership to discuss a path to peace. The gathering, the first uniting the global south and western powers at this level over Ukraine has the potential to be even more ominous for Putin.
The presence of government security officials from South Africa, India, Brazil, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, countries that have refused to take sides in the Ukraine conflict, was seen as a significant sign of engagement, if not, endorsement of Ukraine’s defence of its sovereign territory. Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser had been due to attend, but the momentous events inside Russia on Saturday meant he joined by video link. Senior advisers from G7 countries were also present, including from Italy, the UK, France, Canada, Germany, Japan. Without communiques and fanfares, and away from media glare, it was a serious chance to end the divisions between the global south and the west over the terms to stop Putin’s invasion. One official said they were not trying to browbeat the global south, but explore what their concerns were. The possibility that Putin has been weakened internally might help ease some countries off the fence.
The United Arab Emirates and China, two of the other most prominent non-aligned countries, did not attend. China has been touting its own peace plan, as have a group of African nations, and the meeting was a chance to identify commonalities. The meeting was hosted by Barbara Bertelsen, the state secretary in the Danish prime minister’s office.
The most complex issue is whether Russia needs any security guarantees from the west.
Ukraine’s Andriy Yermak said he told the meeting that the Ukraine peace formula should “be the basis for securing a just and lasting peace in Ukraine since it was based on the principles of the UN charter and international law”.
He said the national security advisers had agreed that the new format for discussion of the war was worth continuing. One of the items was how to convene a peace summit of world leaders and the venue for such an event. Denmark, Paris the UN headquarters and Ukraine itself have all been suggested.
Yermak said the meeting of the advisers was “a clear signal of respect for Ukraine and our just struggle and support for territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
He added “the participation of so many countries in the global south demonstrates the significant positive changes are taking place in the relations between our countries and a qualitatively new level of mutual relation”. Among those attending were Celso Amorim, Brazil’s national security adviser.
The Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, also contacted the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in a bid to create a mechanism for promoting political and consular consultations. The Iranians insisted they were opposed to the war and called on the west to stop arming one side in the war. Iran has been accused of supplying drones to Russia for use in Ukraine.
Updated
Wagner uprising 'a direct challenge to Putin’s authority' and shows 'real cracks' in Russia’s military direction, US secretary of state says
There has been no change in the US nuclear posture after an armed rebellion in Russia, America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said. He added that the Wagner uprising was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction.
Concerns about the prospect of Wagner millitias gaining access to nuclear weapons had been expressed by Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s security council, as the uprising roiled on Saturday.
“The world will be put on the brink of destruction” if Wagner troops obtain nuclear weapons, Medvedev had warned.
Asked if the US was “prepared for the potential fall of the Putin government” and whether Russia’s nuclear stockpile was “secure”, Blinken said: “We always prepare for every contingency.
“In terms of what happens in Russia, it’s an internal matter for the Russians to figure out. Of course, when we’re dealing with a major power, especially a major power that has nuclear weapons, that’s something that’s of concern, something we’re very focused on.
“We haven’t seen any change in Russia’s nuclear posture. There has not been any change in ours, but it’s something that we’re going to watch very, very carefully.”
Blinken said the US president, Joe Biden, has not tried to reach out to Vladimir Putin since the mutiny.
The Wagner rebellion was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction, he said.
In an interview with CBS, Blinken said the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s forces “raised profound questions about the very premises for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in the first place” and said the rebellion could benefit Ukraine militarily.
“It presents a real distraction for Putin and for Russian authorities, that they have to look at, sort of mind their rear, even as they’re trying to deal with the counteroffensive in Ukraine. I think that creates even greater openings for the Ukrainians to do well on the ground,” Blinken said.
Blinken said the American unity of effort to support Ukraine remains. He said the Ukrainian military strategy, which is currently focused on a counteroffensive, may take weeks or months to play out.
Updated
In Kyiv, the silence of another summer evening is broken by the loud, piercing sound of an air raid warning. The alert app on our mobile phone sends out a warning to take cover, and Telegram channels inform us that the air defence system is operating, so we need to be careful.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the people of Ukraine have been living in a state of constant watchfulness, adjusting their lives to the lack of sleep and psychological consequences of terror from above.
The chaos within Russia over the past few days makes the question of what comes next for Ukraine even more important.
Read Olha’s view that Ukraine will need help to rebuild physically and psychologically:
Updated
The Moscow stock exchange, banks and financial institutions are expected to operate as usual on Monday, Russia’s central bank said on Sunday, despite Moscow’s mayor having declared it a non-working day when mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was leading his Wagner forces towards the city.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Saturday asked people to refrain from trips around the city because of a counterterrorism operation.
The mutiny was later aborted in a deal that spared Prigozhin and his mercenaries from facing criminal charges. The deal also exiled Prigozhin to Belarus.
Moscow’s non-working order remains in place even though the mutiny was aborted.
“On June 26, trading and settlement on all Moscow Exchange markets will be conducted as usual, including all trading periods and instruments,” Moscow Exchange said in a statement.
SPB Exchange, Russia’s second-largest bourse, said it would also be operating as normal.
The central bank said banks should ensure the continuous and smooth operation of Russia’s financial markets.
Updated
The UK must prepare for a “deeply dangerous and unpredictable” post-Vladimir Putin Russia, a security expert has warned after the Russian president’s authority was weakened by an attempted rebellion.
Edward Lucas, a senior adviser at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: “We’ve made very little preparation in this country and done very little thinking about post-Putin Russia.
“There will be all sorts of dilemmas and difficulties we face and we need to start thinking right now about how we deal with them.
“And that’s everything from do we worry about Russia falling into the arms of China? Is there going to be disintegration? Will it go full on fascist? Will we have a long period of confusion and chaos? Will they use their nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip to try and get things?
“And these are all the questions that we ought to be dealing with and I’m just not seeing it in most western capitals.
“We face perhaps a decade or more of dealing with a deeply dangerous and unpredictable Russia without even the sort of superficial certainty we have of having Putin in power.”
Wagner rebellion the 'most ridiculous attempt at mutiny' ever, say Ukrainians
An adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister has described the Wagner rebellion in Russia as “the most ridiculous attempt at mutiny” ever.
“This only makes Russia weaker and makes us stronger,” Yuriy Sak told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend.
“What happened yesterday in Russia, it will probably go down in history as the most ridiculous attempt at mutiny that was ever attempted.
“It will have no bearing on our plans. We are on a mission to liberate our land and I just hope that our allies watching this ridiculous mutiny yesterday, they understand that the only way to end the war in Ukraine is to ensure that Ukraine defeats Russia militarily.
“There can be no hope for some kind of internal transformation in Russia. It’s only going to happen on the battlefield.”
Updated
The “big loser” of the armed rebellion was Russia’s long-serving defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, according to an analyst.
Shoigu has long been seen not just as a political ally of President Vladimir Putin but one of the Kremlin chief’s few friends within the Russian elite. They have sun-bathed bare-chested together in remote Siberia, shared fishing holidays and played on the same ice hockey team.
But their friendship and Shoigu’s decades-long political career now face their biggest test after the revolt led by Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had lambasted the defence minister’s handling of the invasion of Ukraine.
Putin appears to have for now survived the revolt after a surprise mediation led by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, AFP reports. But Shoigu’s position remains deeply precarious due to the unprecedented severity of the attacks by Prigozhin against him and his ministry.
“The big winner of the night was Lukashenko,” said Arnaud Dubien, director of the Franco-Russian Observatory think tank. “The big loser was Shoigu.”
Updated
There’s a little more detail on the comments from Vladimir Putin which have been aired on Russian state television on Sunday. He did not mention Saturday’s revolt, in which Wagner mercenaries took a southern city before heading toward Moscow, during the short interview.
He said he was confident in his plans for Ukraine but the interview appeared to have been recorded before the aborted Wagner revolt.
“We feel confident, and, of course, we are in a position to implement all the plans and tasks ahead of us,” Putin said. “This also applies to the country’s defence, it applies to the special military operation, it applies to the economy as a whole and its individual areas.”
The comments in an interview with Kremlin correspondent Pavel Zarubin were broadcast by Rossiya state television. Zarubin said the interview was done after a meeting with military graduates, in an apparent reference to an event held on Wednesday.
In its daily briefing on Sunday, the Russian defence ministry also did not mention anything about the actions of Wagner and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Asked in the interview how much time he dedicates to what Russia calls its special military operation, Putin said: “Of course, this is paramount. Every day starts and ends with this.”
Updated
Moscow’s Red Square remained closed on Sunday morning after security in the city was tightened following the Wagner rebellion on Saturday. Metal gates prevented people from entering the Russian landmark, while police guarded other entry points.
A “non-working day” order was imposed on Moscow for Monday in response to the perceived threat as Wagner mercenaries drove towards the capital on Saturday. The general order has not yet been rescinded by the city’s mayor but the stock exchange, banks and other financial institutions are expected to operate as usual on tomorrow, according to Russia’s central bank.
Updated
Russia’s foreign ministry says China has expressed its support for the leadership in Moscow as Vladimir Putin attempts to stabilise his country following the aborted mutiny by the Wagner group of mercenaries on Saturday.
As Reuters reports, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko held a meeting with China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, after flying to Beijing for talks on “international” issues.
The US and other western powers have urged China not to supply Russia with arms that could be used in the Ukraine conflict. China in May sent an envoy to Ukraine and Russia in an attempt to mediate talks to end the war.
Updated
It was notable that when Yevgeny Prigozhin left the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don late on Saturday, he was cheered by crowds of men gathering around his car. The Wagner leader appears to enjoy rapturous support in Russia despite Vladimir Putin branding him a “traitor” that he vowed to “liquidate”. Pjotr Sauer reports:
Some residents told the Guardian that they welcomed the arrival of the warlord.
“Finally, we can welcome them home,” said Evgeny, 36, a supporter of the war who has been among those crowdfunding and ferrying goods into occupied Ukraine.
“I hope he wins.”
In stark contrast, hours after the Wagner troops left the city, some locals appeared to be angrily greeting the police force that took their place, shouting “traitors” and “shame!” at them.
“Putin is afraid of Prigozhin, ordinary people are clearly not,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, based in Moscow.
Kolesnikov said the events in Rostov indicated that Prigozhin’s populist, anti-elite persona who speaks truth to power had clearly resonated with many Russians unhappy with the foundering invasion.
“There is a real interest in Prigozhin and his fighters,” the analyst said.
Kolesnikov added it was remarkable that some locals in Rostov-on-Don were openly showing their sympathies for Prigozhin, in a political climate where even the slightest forms of dissent can lead to long prison sentences.
The former Russian prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov has said the Wagner rebellion has marked the “beginning of the end” for Vladimir Putin.
Kasyanov, who was Russian PM from 2000-04, has become a vocal critic of Putin and says the Russian president is in “very big trouble right now”.
In comments to the BBC he said that he expected the Wagner leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to go to Africa after travelling to Belarus and “be somewhere in the jungle”. “Mr Putin cannot forgive him for this,” he said, adding that Prigozhin’s life would be under a “big question” now.
Prigozhin is notorious for challenging authority and the reported agreement for him to go into exile in Belarus would place him in a country where such behaviour is even less acceptable than in Russia.
The Belarus president, Alexander Lukashenko, is renowned for his harsh repression of dissent and independent media. As AP reports, he is often called “Europe’s last dictator” and launched a brutal crackdown on 2020 protests against his rule.
Updated
President Putin is to take part in a regular Russian security council meeting next week, the nation’s state TV has said according to Reuters.
It follows the release of recorded remarks made by Putin before an armed rebellion by Wagner mercenaries.
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry on Sunday said it had repelled attempted attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported.
The ministry said it had repelled 10 attacks in the Bakhmut area, agencies reported.
Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.
Putin says 'special military operation' is top priority in interview aired on state TV after aborted Wagner mutiny
President Vladimir Putin has appeared on Russian state TV for the first time since the armed rebellion threatened to topple his regime, though the comments appear to have been recorded before the mutiny.
Putin renewed his commitment to the war in Ukraine, calling the “special military operation” his top priority.
According to Reuters, he said “I start and end my day with this”.
President Putin has made an address on state television across Russia to say he is "confident" in realising all his plans and "tasks" related to the "special military operation" in Ukraine, adding he "starts and ends [his] day with this".https://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 25, 2023
📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/RTpM3KXjoh
He also said he was in “constant contact” with defence ministry officials, Reuters reported.
According to Sky, Putin said he is “confident” in realising all his plans and “tasks” related to the “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The comments in an interview with Kremlin correspondent Pavel Zarubin were broadcast by Rossiya state television. The full interview is due to be broadcast later on Sunday.
Sky reports that the president’s comments were recorded before the Wagner mutiny.
Updated
There was little sign in Moscow on Sunday of the counterterrorism alert that was introduced after Yevgeny Prigozhin launched his revolt and nominally remained in place.
Crowds swarmed the downtown area of the Russian capital on a sunny day and street cafés were packed with customers, according to AP. Traffic had returned to normal and roadblocks and checkpoints were removed.
The “counterterrorist regime” that authorites declared in Moscow and its surroundings allowed restrictions on freedoms and enhanced security.
Anchors on state-controlled television stations cast the deal ending the crisis as a show of President Vladimir Putin’s wisdom and aired footage of the Wagner Group’s troops retreating from Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia. People in Rostov-on-Don who were interviewed by Channel 1 television hailed Putin for defusing the crisis.
One detail noticed by the BBC’s Russia editor was a car with the words “WTF is going on?” emblazoned in white letters on its rear window. Steve Rosenberg commented: “Couldn’t have put it better myself”.
The car in front of us driving through Moscow. Couldn’t have put it better myself. pic.twitter.com/aDpGecjqEd
— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) June 25, 2023
Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was notorious for unbridled and profane challenges to authority even before the attempted rebellion that he mounted Saturday. The reported agreement for him to go into exile in Belarus would place him in a country where such behaviour is even less acceptable than in his homeland, AP reports.
Prigozhin on Sunday was uncharacteristically silent as his Wagner private army forces pulled back from Russian cities after a Kremlin announcement that he agreed to depart for Belarus; it remains unclear whether he’s actually there.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reportedly negotiated the deal. But Prigozhin’s maverick ways are at odds with Lukashenko’s harsh repression of dissent and independent media. In power since 1994, the leader often called “Europe’s last dictator” launched a brutal crackdown on 2020 protests against his rule; hundreds were sentenced to lengthy prison terms, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski.
Under Lukashenko, Belarus became almost umbilically tied to neighboring Russia, agreeing to form a still-in-progress “union state.” Although Belarusia’s army is not known to have taken part in Russia’s war on Ukraine, the country allows Russia to base troops there that have fought in Ukraine and made a deal this year for deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons. Lukashenko is a vehement ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Belarus deal removes Prigozhin’s control of Wagner, but it’s unclear whether any of his fighters would follow him to Belarus, either out of a sense of loyalty or due to dismay with being absorbed into the Russian military as contract soldiers.
“These personnel could potentially sign contracts with the MoD on an individual basis, demobilize in Russia … (or) travel to Belarus in some capacity,” the Institute for the Study of War think-tank said in its report on the failed rebellion.
Death toll from Russian strikes on Kyiv reaches five, mayor says
Russian air strikes on the Ukrainian capital yesterday left five people dead, the city’s mayor has said.
Vitali Klitschko said two more bodies had been found on Sunday under the rubble of an apartment building, Ukrainian media are reporting.
Photos by the State Emergency Service show the apartment almost completely destroyed, it having been struck by a missile yesterday during Russian strikes on Kyiv.
⚡️Mayor: 2 more bodies found in Kyiv building after Russia's June 24 missile strike.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 25, 2023
Two more bodies were found under the rubble of an apartment building a day after it was hit by missile debris during a Russian strike on Kyiv, mayor Vitali Klitschko reported on June 25. pic.twitter.com/YC7juSdJRJ
Klitschko reportedly said rescue operations continue and that 11 people were wounded, and two of who were taken to hospital.
Three people died due to debris hitting a building in the Solomyansk district, in Kyiv and about ten were injured as rescue operations are ongoing, Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said on Saturday.
Guardian reporters visited the site of the incident. Some upper floors of the high-rise building were destroyed, with debris littered in the surrounding streets, ambulances carrying the injured. Russian missiles had targeted at least five regions across Ukraine.
An analyst has said President Putin “underestimated” Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led the armed rebellion yesterday.
Independent political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP: “The crisis of institutions and trust was not obvious to many in Russia and the West yesterday. Today, it is clear.
“Yesterday’s call for unity made by representatives of the elites only confirmed this. Behind these is a crisis of institutions and fears for themselves,” he said.
He noted that Russian leaders would be concerned by the sight of civilian onlookers applauding Wagner units in Rostov.
“Putin’s position is weakened,” he said. “Putin underestimated Prigozhin, just as he underestimated Zelensky before that ... He could have stopped this with a phone call to Prigozhin but he did not.”
Updated
Western leaders remain resistant to the idea of Vladimir Putin stepping down, Alexander Litvinenko’s widow Marina has suggested.
She told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “They accept Ukrainian people in a different country they have support, but they still want to keep Putin, and at least to have some kind of controlling of Russia.
“(After what happened on Saturday) we can see, Putin doesn’t control nothing. If you want to save Russia from collapsing you need to take Putin out from this place.”
She urged Western leaders to not communicate with Mr Putin as the leader of Russia.
Heavily armed Russian mercenaries pulled out of the southern Russian city of Rostov overnight after halting their advance on Moscow under a deal that defused an unprecedented challenge to the authority of President Vladimir Putin.
Under the deal, mediated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, fighters of the Wagner group would return to base in return for guarantees for their safety and their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, would move to Belarus.
However, the aborted mutiny raises big questions about Putin’s grip on a country he has ruled with an iron hand for more than two decades. Italy’s foreign minister, echoing other analysts, said it had shattered the “myth” of Russian unity.
Prigozhin, a former Putin ally, whose forces fought the bloodiest battles of the 16-month war in Ukraine, said his decision to advance on Moscow was intended to remove corrupt and incompetent Russian commanders he blames for botching the war.
Read our snapshot of the most significant developments in this incident:
Chechen special forces deployed to Russia’s Rostov region to resist an advance by the Wagner mercenary group were withdrawing on Sunday, the TASS news agency reported, citing a commander.
The “Akhmat” special forces are returning to where they were fighting previously, commander Apty Alaudinov was quoted as saying by the news agency Reuters reports.
Videos shared on social media from Rostov overnight purportedly showed the mercenaries withdrawing from the city in a convoy of armoured vehicles, tanks and coaches to the sound of cheers and celebratory gunfire from local residents.
“Take care of yourselves,” shouted one woman. Reuters said they were able to verify the location of the video but not the date that it was filmed.
North Korea’s vice foreign minister in a meeting with the Russian ambassador on Sunday said he supported any decision by the Russian leadership to deal with a recent mutiny, North Korean state media reported.
Im Chon Il, the vice foreign minister, “expressed firm belief that the recent armed rebellion in Russia would be successfully put down in conformity with the aspiration and will of the Russian people,” state KCNA news agency said.
Heavily armed Russian mercenaries who advanced most of the way to Moscow this weekend halted their approach, de-escalating a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power, in a move their leader said would avoid bloodshed.
North Korea has sought to forge closer ties with the Kremlin and backed Moscow after it invaded Ukraine last year, blaming the “hegemonic policy” of the United States and the West.
Im also said he believed the Russian army would “overcome trials and ordeals and heroically emerge victorious in the special military operation against Ukraine,” according to KCNA.
A renewed attack on Kyiv from Belarus could take place if Wagner Group mercenaries follow their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin into the country, a former chief of the UK General Staff has warned.
Lord Dannatt told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “Apparently he’s left the stage to go to Belarus but is that the end of Prigozhin and the Wagner Group? The fact that he’s gone to Belarus is I think a matter of some concern.
“What we don’t know, what we will discover in the next hours and days is... how many of his fighters have actually gone with him.
“If he has gone to Belarus and has kept an effective fighting force around him, he then presents a threat again to the Ukrainian flank closest to Kyiv which is where all this began on February 24 last year.
“Although it would appear that this matter is closed I think it is far from closed and the aftershocks will reverberate for quite some time.
“They (Ukraine) need to watch that flank very carefully and make sure they have got some manoeuvre units such that they could repel a renewed attack from the direction of Belarus.”
An uprising by the Wagner mercenary group suggests Vladimir Putin has “lost authority” in Russia, a former MI6 officer has said.
Christopher Steele told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “What’s changed I think is that Vladimir Putin has lost authority and legitimacy within Russia and has been challenged in a way, yes he’s managed to worm his way out of it for the present.
“To see events unfold in Russia yesterday and the speed with which the situation seemed to spiral out of control must be very concerning for Putin and the people around him.”
"Nothing has changed in respect to the government's position in supporting Ukraine."
— Sophy Ridge on Sunday & The Take (@RidgeOnSunday) June 25, 2023
Chief Secretary to the Treasury @JohnGlenUK says tensions in Russia were "concerning" but insists this is not something the UK would intervene in.#Ridge https://t.co/ZoMhCmTrtv
📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/6XIC2I6Nxo
Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen also told the show tensions in Russia were “concerning” but insisted it was not something the UK would intervene in.
“Nothing has changed in respect to the government’s position in supporting Ukraine.”
The Shadow levelling up secretary, Lisa Nandy, told the programme that NATO allies should show a “completely united front” against a “splintering set of Russian forces”.
Wagner fighters were leaving Russia’s southern Voronezh region Sunday, the local governor said, after the group halted a dramatic rebellion to bring down Russia’s top brass and U-turned on a march to Moscow.
Little is known about what happened in Voronezh region on Saturday, where Russia said the army was deployed and led “combat” operations. A huge unexplained fire raged at an oil depot in the city during the mutiny.
“The movement of Wagner units through the Voronezh region is ending,” Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev said according to AFP.
The movement “is running normally and without incidents,” Gusev added, saying travel restrictions imposed during Saturday’s operation against the mutiny will be lifted once “the situation is finally resolved.”
Gusev said authorities will inform residents about compensation for damage and thanked them for their “endurance, firmness and reason”.
All transport restrictions lifted in region previously controlled by Wagner mutineers
All transport restrictions in Russia’s Rostov region have been lifted, including those on highways, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing local officials.
“Bus and railway stations are working in normal mode. Tickets are on sale, all destinations are on schedule,” Sergey Tyurin, deputy minister of regional policy and mass communications for the Rostov region was quoted as saying.
Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta is reporting that PMC Wagner’s military hardware damaged over 10,000 square metres (6.2 square miles) of road surface.
In Rostov-on-Don, PMC Wagner’s military hardware damaged over 10,000 square metres of road surface
— Novaya Gazeta Europe (@novayagazeta_en) June 25, 2023
According to Mayor Alexey Logvinenko, the repairs will begin today, the plan is for them to be finished in two days.https://t.co/0cZacHDtf7 pic.twitter.com/xvVYUGBne1
It cites Mayor Alexey Logvinenko as saying it is expected that repairs to the road will take two days.
The Wagner fighters had captured the city of Rostov overnight on Friday and had reportedly maintained complete control of the region on Saturday.
But on Saturday night, Wagner fighters loaded tanks on trailers and began withdrawing from the Rostov military headquarters they had seized, a Reuters witness said.
Updated
China Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Russia Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko have met in Beijing, in the first public meeting of diplomats from the two countries since mutinous mercenaries threatened to storm the Russian capital.
The two exchanged views on “international and regional issues of common concern”, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Sunday.
They also exchanged views on China-Russia relations, the ministry said on its website.
Chinese leaders have not responded publicly to news of the armed rebellion and the Wall Street Journal reports the events received limited coverage in Chinese media, in stark contrast to the in-depth coverage of the mutiny in Western meedia.
A civilian man died after Russian forces shelled Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, local governor said on Sunday.
Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson and parts of the Kherson region in November after months of Russian occupation, but Russian forces regularly shell the city and surrounding areas from the opposite side of Dnipro River.
“One of the shells exploded right in the middle of the room,” Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app.
He said another woman was trapped under the rubble but alive.
Ukrainian authorities also reported that Russians shelled the south of Dnipropetrovsk region during the night, injuring one person and damaging three private houses.
Reuters said they were unable immediately to verify the report.
Updated
Analysts have been trying to explain the tumultuous events of the last 24 hours, which saw the greatest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power.
Many questions remained unanswered, including whether chief mutineer Yevgeny Prigozhin would be joined in exile by any of Wagner’s troops and what role, if any, he might have there.
But the risk for Putin is whether he will be seen as weak, analysts said.
“Putin has been diminished for all time by this affair,” former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst said on CNN.
A possible motivation for Prigozhin’s rebellion was the Russian Defense Ministry’s demand, which Putin backed, that private companies sign contracts with it by July 1. Prigozhin had refused to do it.
“It may well be that he struck now because he saw that deadline as a danger to his control of his troops,” Herbst wrote in an article for the Atlantic Council.
Ukrainians hoped the Russian infighting would create opportunities for their army to take back territory seized by Russian forces.
“These events will have been of great comfort to the Ukrainian government and the military,” said Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He said that even with a deal, Putin’s position has probably been weakened.
Updated
The Ukrainian military claims to have “liquidated” 720 Russian military people in the last 24 hours, in unverified figures released today.
As of today, the Russians have suffered a total of 224,630 combat losses since the start of the war on 24 February, according to the Ukrainian ministry of defence. Yesterday, the Ukrainians claimed to have caused 223,910 Russian losses.
The Ukrainians also said in the last day they destroyed six tanks, 19 artillery systems, two anti-aircraft war systems, 41 cruise missiles, among other military equipment.
Both Ukraine and Russia have consistently claimed the other side has sustained devastatingly high casualties, but it has not been possible to verify battlefield claims from either side.
Western diplomats told Reuters on 5 June that Russia’s deaths and casualties totalled around 200,000.
Updated
An “anti-terrorist operation regime” was still in force in Moscow on Sunday, a day after mutinous Wagner mercenaries threatened to storm the Russian capital, in a dramatic security crisis for President Vladimir Putin.
The anti-terrorist regime was introduced in Moscow on Saturday, as the Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s forces appeared to advance on the capital, with authorities asking residents to limit travel.
Moscow authorities also said that a day off work introduced to curb movement around the city on Monday would remain in place for security reasons.
Authorities in the Kaluga region, south of Moscow, said on Saturday they were starting to lift road restrictions introduced to stop the Wagner rebellion.
In the southern city of Voronezh, where the army said it was leading “combat” a day earlier, emergency services they put out a huge fire at an oil depot that burned during the mutiny.
Authorities had not explained the cause of the fire, with images on social media showing a large black cloud of smoke. Some Russian media reported there was a helicopter nearby before an explosion in the area.
Updated
Here’s our full report on the latest developments
The chief of the rebel Wagner mercenary force Yevgeny Prigozhin will leave Russia and won’t face charges after calling off his troops’ advance towards Moscow, as reports emerged that US spy agencies had picked up signs days ago that he was preparing to rise up against Russia’s defence establishment.
Late on Saturday, video emerged of Prigozhin leaving the headquarters of the southern military district in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don after agreeing to move to Belarus. His exact whereabouts on Sunday morning were not clear. Images also showed Wagner fighters withdrawing from the city.
The developments came amid reports in the Washington Post and New York Times that said US intelligence officials had conducted briefings at the White House, the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill about the potential for unrest in nuclear-armed Russia a full day before it unfolded.
Read more:
Summary
If you’re just joining us, here’s a roundup of all the latest developments:
In an abrupt about-face, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said he had called off his troops’ march on Moscow and ordered them to move out of Rostov. Under a deal brokered by Belarus, Prigozhin agreed to leave Russia and move to Belarus. He will not face charges and Wagner troops who took part in the rebellion will not face any action in recognition of their previous service to Russia.
In a statement, Prigozhin said that he wanted to avoid the spilling of “Russian blood”. “Now the moment has come when blood can be shed,” he said. “Therefore, realising all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed from one side, we will turn our convoys around and go in the opposite direction to our field camps.”
The Wagner leader was later pictured leaving the headquarters of the southern military district (SMD) in Rostov, which his forces had occupied on Saturday. Wagner forces also shot down three military helicopters and had entered the Lipetsk region, about 360km (225 miles) south of Moscow, before they were called back.
Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko’s press office was the first to announce that Prigozhin would be backing down, saying that Lukashenko had negotiated a de-escalation with the Wagner head after talking to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Lukashenko said that Putin has since thanked him for his negotiation efforts.
Putin has not publicly commented on Lukashenko’s deal with Prigozhin. He appeared on television earlier on Saturday in an emergency broadcast, issuing a nationwide call for unity in the face of a mutinous strike that he compared to the revolution of 1917. “Any internal mutiny is a deadly threat to our state, to us as a nation,” he said.
Putin reportedly took a plane out of Moscow heading north-west on Saturday afternoon. It is unclear where he went or his current whereabouts.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Putin was “obviously very afraid” and “probably hiding”. In his latest evening address, Zelenskiy said: “Today the world saw that the bosses of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Complete chaos. Complete absence of any predictability. And it is happening on Russian territory, which is fully loaded with weapons.”
US spy agencies picked up information suggesting the Wagner leader was planning to take action against Russia’s military leadership as early as mid-June, US media has reported. The Washington Post and New York Times that said US intelligence officials had conducted briefings at the White House, the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill about the potential for unrest in nuclear-armed Russia a full day before it unfolded.
Analysts have been confounded by events, with most saying it is too early to say whether Putin will fall but agreeing that he has been substantially damaged by the mutiny. The Institute for the Study of War noted that the Kremlin struggled to put together a coherent response to the mutiny and that “Wagner likely could have reached the outskirts of Moscow if Prigozhin chose to order them to do so.”
Ukraine’s military said on Saturday its forces made advances near Bakhmut, on the eastern front, and further south. Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said an offensive was launched near a group of villages ringing Bakhmut, which was taken by Wagner forces in May after months of fighting. Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, commander of the southern front, said Ukrainian forces had liberated an area near Krasnohorivka, west of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk.
Ukrainian forces have reset and have been undertaking major offensive operations on three main axes in southern and eastern Ukraine over the past few days, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update.
Ukrainian forces are using the experiences from the first two weeks of the counter-offensive to refine tactics for assaulting the deep, well prepared Russian defences. Ukrainian units are making gradual but steady tactical progress in key areas.
It notes that Russian forces have been making their own “significant effort” to launch an attack in the Serebryanka Forest near Kremina in the eastern region of Luhansk.
This probably reflects continued Russian senior leadership orders to go on the offensive whenever possible. Russia has made some small gains, but Ukrainian forces have prevented a breakthrough.
The situation around the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don was calm and street traffic resumed, RIA state news agency said on Sunday after Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenaries left the city.
In a video on the agency’s Telegram messaging app, which it said was taken in the city of Rostov-on-Don, a man was sweeping a street and cars were moving along another street, Reuters reported.
A bit more from the ISW analysis, which says that though it does not predict the imminent collapse of the Russia government, the weekend’s events “will likely substantially damage Putin’s government and the Russian war effort in Ukraine”.
The Kremlin now faces a deeply unstable equilibrium. The Lukashenko-negotiated deal is a short-term fix, not a long-term solution, and Prigozhin’s rebellion exposed severe weaknesses in the Kremlin and Russian MoD…
The imagery of Putin appearing on national television to call for the end of an armed rebellion and warning of a repeat of a repeat of the 1917 revolution – and then requiring mediation from a foreign leader to resolve the rebellion – will have a lasting impact.
The rebellion exposed the weakness of the Russian security forces and demonstrated Putin’s inability to use his forces in a timely manner to repel an internal threat and further eroded his monopoly on force.
Prigozhin’s rapid drive towards Moscow ridiculed much of the Russian regular forces – and highlighted to any and all security figures, state owned enterprises, and other key figures in the Russian government that private military forces separate from the central state can achieve impressive results.
Russia’s Federal Road Agency urged residents of the Moscow region on Sunday to refrain from travelling along the M-4 “Don” major expressway until 10 am (0700 GMT), Reuters reports.
The agency had said earlier in the day on the Telegram messaging app, in a post now deleted, that traffic restrictions on the highway in the Moscow and Tula regions remained.
The M4 links Moscow with the south, and authorities closed it on Saturday as Wagner fighters made their way up from Rostov.
Updated
In an analysis for the Atlantic published just before Prigozhin called off his mutiny, prominent US-Polish historian Anne Applebaum asks whether Putin could be “facing his Czar Nicholas II moment?”
“In a slow, unfocused sort of way, Russia is sliding into what can only be described as a civil war,” she writes.
If you are surprised, maybe you shouldn’t be. For months – years, really –Putin has blamed all of his country’s troubles on outsiders: America, Europe, Nato … Now he is facing a movement that lives according to the true values of the modern Russian military, and indeed of modern Russia.
Prigozhin is cynical, brutal, and violent. He and his men are motivated by money and self-interest. They are angry at the corruption of the top brass, the bad equipment provided to them, the incredible number of lives wasted. They aren’t Christian, and they don’t care about Peter the Great.
She notes that in 1917, it was Russian soldiers who came home angry from World War I to launch the Russian revolution.
Putin alluded to that moment in his brief television appearance this morning … What he did not mention was that up until the moment he left power, Czar Nicholas II was having tea with his wife, writing banal notes in his diary, and imagining that the ordinary Russian peasants loved him and would always take his side.
He was wrong.
Updated
More images have also come through on the wires, showing smiling and cheering civilians with Wagner fighters.
Traffic restrictions remain in place on the M-4 “Don” major expressway in the Moscow and Tula regions on Sunday, the Federal Road Agency said on the Telegram messaging app according to Reuters.
The M4 links Moscow with the south, and authorities closed it on Saturday as Wagner fighters made their way up from Rostov.
“According to earlier decisions made in the regions, the restriction of traffic along the M-4 ‘Don’ (highway) in the Tula and Moscow regions remains in place,” the agency said.
A tweet verified by the BBC shows again how civilians in Rostov celebrated the Wagner troops as they were withdrawing. Not necessarily a sign that they don’t support president Vladimir Putin, but nonetheless not encouraging for him.
You can also hear a Wagner fighter firing his gun into the air.
One of the Wagner fighters opened fire in the sky during the withdrawal of the PMC from Rostov while civilians celebrated the mercenaries. pic.twitter.com/HpjTj98PTm
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) June 24, 2023
The ISW further speculates that Prigozhin saw the Ministry of Defence’s 1 July deadline for all irregular forces, including his Wagner group, to sign contracts with the government as an “existential threat to his political (and possibly personal) survival”.
He therefore “gambled that his only avenue to retain Wagner Group as an independent force was to march against the Russian MoD, likely intending to secure defections in the Russian military but overestimating his own prospects”.
Due to the speed and coordination of Wagner movements, Prigozhin “almost certainly planned this effort in advance,” the thinktank writes – that aligns with US media reports that US intelligence suspected up to two weeks ago that he was planning to take action against Moscow.
The thinktank also suggests that the rebellion may have eroded support for Prigozhin among the ultranationalist community and even within Wagner itself, as it forced Wagner-affiliated regional authorities and recruitment organizations to denounce the effort.
Prigozhin also likely angered many Wagner personnel and Wagner-sympathetic ultranationalists by not following through with his attempted march on Moscow.
The agreement brokered by Belarus may also upset Wagner personnel, as it marks the end of efforts to keep Wagner from being subordinated to the MoD.
It is unclear at this time if Prigozhin secured buy-in from Wagner commanders or rank-and-file personnel before making the alleged agreement, and many Wagner personnel will likely be displeased with the potential of signing contracts with the MoD, demobilizing, or deploying away from Ukraine.
Updated
More from the ISW analysis, which says that the optics of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko playing a direct role in the halting of a military advance on Moscow are “humiliating to [Russian president Vladimir] Putin and may have secured Lukashenko other benefits”.
Lukashenko’s reported access to previously established channels and successful negotiation with [Wagner leader Yevgeny] Prigozhin likely indicates Lukashenko has unspecified influence over Prigozhin he could leverage to deescalate the situation ...
Lukashenko will likely seek to use the de-escalation of the armed rebellion to advance his goals, such as delaying the formalization of the Russia-Belarus Union State or preventing Putin from using Belarusian forces in Ukraine.
Kremlin struggled to put together coherent response to Wagner mutiny, US thinktank says
The Kremlin struggled to put together a coherent response to the Wagner mutiny “highlighting internal security weaknesses likely due to surprise and the impact of heavy losses in Ukraine,” the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest analysis of the conflict.
Russian authorities mobilised Rosgvardia, the Russian National Police, the US thinktank wrote, but “ISW has not observed any reports or footage suggesting that Rosgvardia units engaged with Wagner at any point”.
Rosgvardia’s founding mission is to protect internal threats to the security of the Russian government such as an advance on Moscow, and it is notable that Rosgvardia failed to engage even as Wagner captured critical military assets in Rostov-on-Don and destroyed Russian military aircraft
It also noted that though Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said he had mobilised his forces – which supposedly specialise in domestic security – in response to the Wagner advance, they also “unsurprisingly” never engaged with Wagner. This is “in line with Kadyrov’s paramount objective of maintaining his own internal security force,” the ISW said.
It concluded:
The Kremlin’s dedicated internal security organs failed to respond to an independent military force capturing the headquarters of the SMD [southern military district] and advancing on Moscow – and Wagner likely could have reached the outskirts of Moscow if Prigozhin chose to order them to do so.
Updated
The extraordinary uprising by the Wagner mercenary force so crucial to Vladimir Putin’s war machine in Ukraine has dominated headlines around the world and raised question marks about the Russian president’s grip on power.
The Observer says “Rebel chief halts tank advance on Moscow ‘to stop bloodshed’” next to an image of a Wagner tank in Rostov-on-Don. Analysis by Luke Harding also features on the front, in which he says the mutiny led by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves Putin at his weakest in decades.
SUNDAY TIMES: Putin humiliated by mutiny #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/d9fRGNVwzx
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 24, 2023
Bild in Germany has the headline: “Uprising against Putin” next to images of Wagner fighters. Its subhead reads: “The putsch attempt in Russia and what that means for us.” Die Welt and Der Spiegel both speak of a “power struggle” in Russia on their front pages.
The New York Times carried analysis on what the short-lived mutiny said about Putin’s hold on power. Correspondent Peter Baker noted the dangers and the opportunity the volatility presented to the US; the danger being an under-threat president in charge of nuclear missiles, and the opportunity a weakening of Russia’s war effort, to Ukraine’s gain.
Read our full wrap of what the papers say:
Samuel Bendett, a Russia expert at the Center for Naval Analyses, has also posted some analysis about the day’s events, in which he argues that there have to be some consequences for Prigozhin and Wagner.
“Otherwise the message is that a military force can openly challenge the state, and others have to learn that the Russian state indeed has a monopoly on violence inside the country,” he writes.
“There has to be ‘some’ accountability for the military personnel who were involved and others who made no active showing of stopping Wagner, or avoided challenging Prigozhin’s force altogether. Again, Prigozhin’s actions were a challenge to the state and those who did not prevent Wagner’s march contributed to Prigozhin’s ‘success.’”
He also notes that the Kremlin will remember who spoke out against Prigozhin and who was notable by their absence.
“Those politicians who said nothing about the crisis, were too meek in their critique of Prigozhin were noted by the Kremlin,” Bendett wrote.
“The MOD was Prigozhin’s ultimate target, and [defence minister Sergei] Shoigu with [chief of the general staff Valery] Gerasimov were nowhere to be seen. There will have to be some explanation for their public absence. Generals Surovikin and Alekseev probably earned at least some ‘bonus points’ for their public appeals to Wagner.”
And a final thought: “Unclear yet what to make of it all right now. Wagner and Prigozhin emerging unscathed is probably a big shock for the MOD, the military and the security services.”
The Guardian’s own correspondents, Andrew Roth, who reported on the reaction in Rostov to the shortlived mutiny, and Pjotr Sauer, who covered Prigozhin’s march into Russia from Ukraine as it happened, had these observations to make:
Hard to imagine that Prigozhin just happily goes into exile after this https://t.co/u2Po4Hh8hF
— Pjotr Sauer (@PjotrSauer) June 24, 2023
Prigozhin army: Shoots down multiple Russian mil aircraft, kills at least a dozen soldiers, forces Russian army to dig anti-tank ditches in the M4 and declare counterterrorist operation as they march on Moscow for potential civil war
— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) June 24, 2023
Rostov: 🤩🤳 https://t.co/xZWikAJguH
Rob Lee, a military expert at the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, has posted some analysis of the last 24 hours, which have left many of us scratching our heads – indeed he starts by saying he has “more questions than answers”.
Regarding the Russian president, he says its “too soon to say Putin will fall anytime soon” but notes that “Putin and the MoD’s leadership look weak”.
It’s “not clear this will affect Ukraine’s offensive” but “the previous Kremlin-Wagner relationship is over” and “Wagner-Russian military cooperation will likely suffer”.
He also says Prigozhin “likely alienated many pro-war figures for doing this while Russian soldiers are defending against an offensive and killing Russian airmen” and notes that there is “a difference between soldiers and police not shooting at Wagner and joining them”.
Given Wagner’s presence overseas, “the greatest effects from this event may be felt in MENA/Africa”, says Lee.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has condemned Prigozhin in a post on the Telegram messaging app, saying bloodshed had been averted this time but that it “could happen”.
“I thought some people could be trusted,” he wrote. “That they sincerely love their Motherland as real patriots to the marrow of their bones. But it turned out that for the sake of personal ambitions, benefits and because of arrogance, people cannot give a damn about affection and love for the Fatherland.”
He called on Wagner fighters “to continue to be sober in their decisions”, warning “such actions can lead to disastrous results”.
“Now everything ended peacefully, without bloodshed, but it could happen,” he continued, saying that a future rebellion would result in “the harsh suppression and destruction of anyone who encroaches on the integrity of the Russian Federation”.
On Saturday Kadyrov, an ally of Putin, called Prigozhin a traitor and said he was sending Chechen troops to squash the mutiny.
Updated
A bit more from the US reports claiming that US spy agencies suspected Prigozhin was planning something earlier this month.
A key trigger was an order from 10 June, in which the Russian Ministry of Defence ordered all volunteer units to sign contracts with the government, the Washington Post reports. This would have meant Prigozhin’s losing control of Wagner.
Ukraine was also monitoring Prigozhin, believing that he might mobilise his troops against Moscow, a Ukrainian official said, according to the paper.
The New York Times says the prior knowledge of impending events was similar to the way in which US intelligence got wind of Russian plans to invade Ukraine at the end of 2021.
However, while the US tried to warn Ukraine publicly then and deter Putin from carrying out his plans intelligence agencies in this case said nothing.
“US officials felt that if they said anything, Mr Putin could accuse them of orchestrating a coup. And they clearly had little interest in helping Mr. Putin avoid a major, embarrassing fracturing of his support,” the Times reported.
Putin 'obviously very afraid' and 'probably hiding', Zelenskiy says
Russian president Vladimir Putin is “obviously very afraid” and “probably hiding”, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in his latest evening address.
“The man from the Kremlin is obviously very afraid and probably hiding somewhere, not showing himself. I am sure that he is no longer in Moscow … He knows what he is afraid of because he himself created this threat,” Zelenskiy said.
Putin has not commented on the Belarus-brokered deal that negotiated Prigozhin’s exit from Russia and the withdrawal of Wagner troops from Rostov. He is believed to have left Moscow on a plane on Saturday afternoon and his whereabouts are unclear.
His apparent departure from the capital contrasts notably with that of Zelenskiy, who remained in Kyiv when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last year.
“Today the world saw that the bosses of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Complete chaos. Complete absence of any predictability. And it is happening on Russian territory, which is fully loaded with weapons,” said Zelenskiy.
“In one day, they lost several of their million-plus cities and showed all Russian bandits, mercenaries, oligarchs and anyone else how easy it is to capture Russian cities and, probably, arsenals with weapons.”
The wires have been sending through images from Rostov, from where Wagner troops are withdrawing.
Many people appeared to be perfectly happy to see them on the streets and Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was pictured smiling and shaking hands with civilians as he left the headquarters of the southern district command.
US suspected Prigozhin plan to launch action against military leadership, US media reports
US spy agencies picked up information suggesting Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning to take action against Russia’s military leadership as early as mid-June, US media has reported.
Over the past two weeks there was “high concern” about what may happen regarding president Vladimir Putin’ grip on power and the country’s nuclear arsenal, the Washington Post reported, citing anonymous US officials.
The exact timing and nature of Prigozhin’s plans were not clear until Friday, when the Wagner leader first began posting about an alleged Russian rocket attack on his forces, but “there were enough signals to be able to tell the leadership … that something was up,” the Post quoted one official as saying.
According to the New York Times, senior American national security officials had indications as early as Wednesday that Prigozhin was preparing to take action and intelligence officials conducted briefings with the Biden administration and defence officials on the same day.
A narrow group of congressional leaders were informed on Thursday, when additional confirmation of the plot came in, the Times reported.
Updated
Wagner boss Prigozhin agrees to call off march on Moscow and leave the country
Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has agreed to leave Russia and ordered his fighters to withdraw from Rostov and halt their march on Moscow, under the terms of a deal negotiated by Belarus.
At the end of an extraordinary day, during which a visibly angry Vladimir Putin had made an emergency television broadcast railing against the “deadly threat to our state”, Progozhin said that he wanted to avoid shedding Russian blood and would order his troops back to their bases instead.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the criminal case that had been opened against Prigozhin for armed mutiny would be dropped, and the Wagner fighters who had taken part in his “march for justice” would not face any action in recognition of their previous service to Russia.
Videos later showed Prigozhin, who said his men had reached within 125 miles (200 km) of the capital, and his fighters leaving Rostov.
Here’s our full report by Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer:
Opening summary
Events in Russia have been unfolding at breakneck pace over the past 24 hours after Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a march on Moscow aiming to oust the country’s military leadership, only to call it off on the same day and agree to leave the country for Belarus.
Here’s a roundup of the key developments:
In an abrupt about-face, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said he had called off his troops’ march on Moscow and ordered them to move out of Rostov. Under a deal brokered by Belarus, Prigozhin agreed to leave Russia and move to Belarus. He will not face charges and Wagner troops who took part in the rebellion will not face any action in recognition of their previous service to Russia.
In a statement, Prigozhin said that he wanted to avoid the spilling of “Russian blood”. “Now the moment has come when blood can be shed,” he said. “Therefore, realising all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed from one side, we will turn our convoys around and go in the opposite direction to our field camps.”
The Wagner leader was later pictured leaving the headquarters of the southern military district (SMD) in Rostov, which his forces had occupied on Saturday. Wagner forces also shot down three military helicopters and had entered the Lipetsk region, about 360km (225 miles) south of Moscow, before they were called back.
Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko’s press office was the first to announce that Prigozhin would be backing down, saying that Lukashenko had negotiated a de-escalation with the Wagner head after talking to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Lukashenko said that Putin has since thanked him for his negotiation efforts.
Putin has not publicly commented on Lukashenko’s deal with Prigozhin. He appeared on television earlier on Saturday in an emergency broadcast, issuing a nationwide call for unity in the face of a mutinous strike that he compared to the revolution of 1917. “Any internal mutiny is a deadly threat to our state, to us as a nation,” he said.
Putin reportedly took a plane out of Moscow heading north-west on Saturday afternoon. It is unclear where he went or his current whereabouts.
Before the Belarus deal was announced, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that: “Everyone who chooses the path of evil destroys himself. Whoever throws hundreds of thousands into the war, eventually must barricade himself in the Moscow region from those whom he himself armed.”
Ukraine’s military said on Saturday its forces made advances near Bakhmut, on the eastern front, and further south. Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said an offensive was launched near a group of villages ringing Bakhmut, which was taken by Wagner forces in May after months of fighting. Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, commander of the southern front, said Ukrainian forces had liberated an area near Krasnohorivka, west of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk.
I'm Helen Livingstone and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news on the conflict in Ukraine and the crisis in Russia.
