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Moscow taking anti-terrorist steps to boost security – mayor
Moscow’s mayor says anti-terrorist measures are being taken to reinforce security in the Russian capital.
Sergei Sobyanin said the city was also introducing additional checks on roads, Reuters reports.
Key events
Luke Harding
Our correspondent Luke Harding has this take on today’s events:
This is a very significant moment. It presents an enormous opportunity for Ukraine. I would expect Kyiv to intensify its counteroffensive. It is hard to know how Russia will respond, but there will be turmoil in Russian military structures, from ground positions to the very top.
It is a bad day for Putin.
Extraordinary – and a long night ahead: tanks in the streets of #Moscow and Rostov; open warfare between Prigozhin and the Kremlin/FSB; pleas from Russian generals for Wagner to call off its “state coup”. All of which present significant opportunities for #Ukraine in coming days https://t.co/ezeE2s8kRH
— Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) June 23, 2023
Prigozhin claims his forces have taken control of all Rostov-on-Don military sites
Yevgeny Prigozhin says in a new video message that all military sites in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don are under the Wagner mercenary group’s control, Reuters is reporting.
The Wagner chief also says in the video, which was posted to Telegram, that he and his men are in the southern district military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don.
Prigozhin says that does not impede Russia’s conduct of what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The Guardian has not been able to verify his claims.
Reuters is reporting that video on a pro-Wagner channel on Telegram appears to show Yevgeny Prigozhin talking to top Russian generals in what the channel says is the district military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don.
The video could not be independently verified.
Prigozhin appears to say on the video that his men will blockade Rostov-on-Don and head for Moscow unless Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, and Gen Valery Gerasimov come to them.
Rostov regional governor Vasily Golubev has also said all public events scheduled for this weekend in Rostov-on-Don have been cancelled.
Municipal transport in the city was operational “but the routes around the city centre have been changed”, he said on Telegram.
Suburban transport from Azov, Bataysk and Aksai works regularly. There are temporary restrictions on the Taganrog [port city], as well as on the northern direction from Rostov.
Some more images are emerging of Rostov-on-Don, showing police and armoured vehicles on the streets:
Rostov residents warned against going into city centre
The Rostov region’s governor has urged residents not to travel into Rostov-on-Don’s city centre and to avoid leaving their homes if possible.
Vasily Golubev posted on Telegram that law enforcement agencies were doing “everything necessary to ensure the safety of residents in the area”.
He said he had given “the necessary instructions to the Rostov city administration and the life support services of Rostov to take the necessary measures to preserve the normal functioning of all city systems”.
I keep the issue under control, regularly listening to reports.
Videos posted on local Rostov-on-Don Telegram channels early on Saturday showed armed men in uniform skirting the city’s regional police headquarters, belonging to the interior ministry. Reuters reported it was not immediately clear who the armed men were.
The governor of the Lipetsk region in central Russia says the M-4 motorway connecting Moscow with southern regions has been closed to traffic at the border with the Voronezh region, about 400km (250 miles) south of the Russian capital, Reuters reports.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin appears to have sent an armed convoy of his mercenary fighters on a 1,200km (750-mile) drive towards Moscow, having said he intends to oust the military leadership.
Jordyn Beazley
The rising tensions between Russia and the Wagner group could affect the outcomes of the Ukraine war as it fractures Russia’s military amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces, according to an expert.
Jessica Genauer, an international relations expert at Flinders University in Australia, said:
There’s a lot of uncertainty at the moment as the situation is still evolving, but in any case, it’s clear this is not good news for Putin, and it’s not good news for Russia.
Even if this does create widespread instability, I would see this as part of a far bigger picture that there are cracks starting to emerge in the political domain in Russia as a result of the fact Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has not succeeded in the way Putin expected.
Moscow taking anti-terrorist steps to boost security – mayor
Moscow’s mayor says anti-terrorist measures are being taken to reinforce security in the Russian capital.
Sergei Sobyanin said the city was also introducing additional checks on roads, Reuters reports.
Helen Livingstone
The Institute for the Study of War has also given some useful context about Prigozhin’s focus on Rostov, which is home to the Russian southern military district command – key to Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.
Following Wagner’s withdrawal from Bakhmut, a large number of Wagner forces likely remained in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and also a Wagner training facility in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai, all of which are close to Rostov oblast.
That would make Rostov “the most viable target of a Wagner armed rebellion,” the US thinktank says. And an attack on the military leadership there would have “significant impacts” on the Russian war effort in Ukraine, the ISW says.
The southern military district’s 58th combined arms army is “currently decisively engaged in defensive operations against Ukrainian counteroffensives in southern Ukraine, and the command centre for the Russian joint group of forces in Ukraine as a whole”, it writes.
Rostov-on-Don is therefore a critical command and control membrane for the Russian army, and any threats to the MoD’s presence are likely to have ramifications on some critical aspects of the war effort.
Footage shows armed men skirting Rostov police HQ
Videos posted on Russian local Rostov-on-Don Telegram channels early on Saturday showed armed men in uniform skirting the city’s regional police headquarters, belonging to the interior ministry.
Reuters reports it was not immediately clear who the armed men were. The news agency was able to verify the location as the police headquarters building, but not to determine when the video was shot.
Authorities in southern Russian regions had said measures were being taken to ensure public safety after Yevgeny Prigozhin indicated he planned to despatch men to Moscow to oust the military leadership.
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