Moscow security tightened amid coup fears as Wagner boss accused of urging ‘mutiny’

Authorities in Russia have launched a criminal probe against the owner of the Wagner Group military contractor over his alleged threats to oust Russia’s defence minister.

The announcement follows a statement from owner Yevgeny Prigozhin accusing Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike on Wagner’s field camps in Ukraine where its soldier are fighting on behalf of Russia against Ukrainian forces.

Mr Prigozhin said that his troops would now move to punish Mr Shoigu and urged the army not to offer resistance.

Mr Prigozhin declared that “this is not an armed rebellion, but a march of justice”.

The Russian Defence ministry rejected Mr Prigozhin’s claim and the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, the country’s top counter-terrorism structure, said it opened a criminal inquiry on charges of making calls for a military coup.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed about the situation, adding that “all the necessary measures were being taken”.

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Friday that the Kremlin’s rationale for invading Ukraine was based on lies concocted by his perennial adversary – the army’s top brass.

Mr Prigozhin, whose frequent tirades on social media belie his limited role in the war as head of the Wagner private military company, has for months been openly accusing defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, of rank incompetence.

But on Friday he for the first time dismissed Russia’s core justifications for invading Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year in what it calls a “special military operation”, in a video clip released on Telegram by his press service.

“There was nothing out of the ordinary happening [the day Russia invaded]… the defence ministry is trying to deceive society and the president and tell us a story about how there was crazy aggression from Ukraine and that they were planning to attack us with the whole of NATO,” Mr Prigozhin said, calling the official version “a beautiful story”.

“The war was needed … so that Shoigu could become a marshal … so that he could get a second ‘Hero’ [of Russia] medal. The war wasn’t needed to demilitarise or denazify Ukraine.”

Sitting on a chair with a giant black Wagner flag behind him, Mr Prigozhin said the war had also been needed to enrich the ruling elite who, he said, were not satisfied with the commercial potential of part of Ukraine’s Donbas region that Moscow seized control of in 2014 via a proxy separatist force.

“The task was to divide material assets (in Ukraine),” he said. “There was massive theft in the Donbas, but they wanted more.”

Security has been stepped up tonight at government buildings, transport facilities and other key locations in Moscow, the state news agency TASS has reported, citing a source at a security service.

Hours earlier, Russian authorities had accused the head of the Wagner private militia of organising an armed mutiny after he vowed to avenge what he alleged, without evidence, was the killing of 2,000 of his fighters by the Russian army.

The deputy commander of Russia’s Ukraine campaign, General Sergei Surovikin, has urged the fighters of the Wagner private militia to give up their opposition to the military leadership and return to their bases.

“I urge you to stop,” he said in a video message posted on Telegram. “The enemy is just waiting for the internal political situation to worsen in our country.”

Earlier on Friday, the FSB security service had said comments by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin vowing to avenge Moscow’s purported killing of thousands of his fighters amounted to a call to start an armed civil conflict, the Interfax news agency reported. It urged Wagner fighters to arrest him.

Ukraine wants other countries to heed its warning that Russia may be planning to attack an occupied nuclear power plant to cause a radiation disaster, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Members of his government briefed international representatives on the possible threat to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

In his nightly address, Mr Zelensky said he expected other nations to “give appropriate signals and exert pressure” on Moscow.

“Our principle is simple: The world must know what the occupier is preparing. Everyone who knows must act,” Mr Zelensky said. “The world has enough power to prevent any radiation incidents, let alone a radiation catastrophe.”

The Kremlin’s spokesman has denied the threat to the plant is coming from Russian forces.

Two of Donald Trump’s staunchest allies in the US Congress have introduced legislation aimed at expunging the former president’s two impeachments, a legislative maneuver without precedent in US history.

Representative Elise Stefanik, the No. 4 House of Representatives Republican, and hardline Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a pair of resolutions that if enacted would aim to change the record “as if such articles had never been passed.”

Republicans control the House 222-212.

Trump, who is running for reelection in 2024, was twice impeached by the then-Democratic-controlled House, in December 2019 over Ukraine and again in January 2021 for his actions ahead of the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner mercenary group, on Friday accused Russia of killing a “huge number” of its forces in strikes and vowed to retaliate.

His comments are likely to stoke tensions between Moscow and the private military company.

The 62-year-old whose men have bolstered Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, has ramped up his verbal attacks against Moscow in recent weeks, including questioning the very need for the military operation.

Once believed to be a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, Mr Prigozhin is increasingly seen as keen on a political role as he engages in an all-out war of words with Moscow, that appears to have spilled onto the battlefield.

“The council of commanders of PMC Wagner has made a decision — the evil that the military leadership of the country brings must be stopped,” Mr Prigozin said in a series of furious audio messages released by his spokespeople.

“We were ready to make concessions to the defence ministry, surrender our weapons.”

Russia’s FSB security service has opened a criminal case against mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin for calling for armed mutiny, the TASS news agency said on Friday, citing the National Antiterrorism Committee.

Prigozhin on Friday accused the Russian military of “destroying” his fighters, without fully explaining his accusation, and vowed to stop the “evil” of the military leadership.

President Vladimir Putin has been briefed on the developments and “necessary measures are being taken”, Interfax news agency said, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Friday accused the Russian military of destroying his fighters, without explaining his accusation, and vowed to stop the “evil” of the military leadership.

The Defence Ministry quickly issued a statement saying Prigozhin’s accusations “do not correspond to reality and are an informational provocation”.

In a series of audio messages on his official Telegram channel, Prigozhin said the “evil” of the Russian military leadership “must be stopped”, adding:

“Those who destroyed our lads, who destroyed the lives of many tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, will be punished. I ask that no one offer resistance.”

Ukraine said on Friday it has retaken eight villages already but the main push in its counteroffensive against Russian forces was still to come.

One of the country’s top generals reported “tangible successes” in advances in the south and that some troops had not yet deployed and the operation so far intended to “set up the battlefield”.

It follows president Volodymyr Zelensky saying earlier this week that gains had been “slower than desired.”

“Offensive operations of the armed forces of Ukraine continue in a number of areas. Formation operations are underway to set up the battlefield,” presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.

“The counteroffensive is not a new season of a Netflix show. There is no need to expect action and buy popcorn.”

Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said the “main events” of the counteroffensive were “ahead of us.”

“And the main blow is still to come. Indeed, some of the reserves – these are staged things – will be activated later,” Ms Maliar told Ukrainian television.

Earlier on Friday, drone footage showed a Russian troop being wiped out by a bomb.