Moscow Mayor Says “Situation Difficult” As Mercenary Wagner Group Approaches

1. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Saturday warned the situation in the capital was “difficult,” as forces of the Wagner mercenary group moved towards Moscow to oust Russia’s military leadership.

2. “The situation is difficult. I ask you to refrain from travelling around the city as much as possible,” Sobyanin said in a statement, warning of possible road closures and announcing Monday was a “non-working” day.

3. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Wagner mutiny showed Russia was weak. Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar said it provided a “window of opportunity” for Kyiv on the battlefield.

4. Russia warned the West against taking advantage of the armed insurrection by the Wagner group in Russia to achieve what Moscow said were their “anti-Russian” goals. “We warn the Western countries against any hint of possible use of the domestic Russian situation to achieve their Russophobic goals,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

5. “All goals and objectives of the special military operation will be fulfilled,” the Russian foreign ministry added, using the Kremlin-preferred term for Moscow’s large-scale military intervention in Ukraine.

6. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, once a close Putin ally, said his troops had taken control of the military command centre and airbase in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, the nerve centre of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, and vowed to topple Moscow’s top military leaders.

7. “We got to Rostov. Without a single shot we captured the HQ building,” Prigozhin said, in an audio message on social media channels, claiming that local civilians had welcomed the operation.

8. President Vladimir Putin has vowed to punish the mutineers, calling them “traitors”. Prigozhin fired back at the long-time leader, saying he was “deeply mistaken”.

9. While Prigozhin’s outfit fought at the forefront of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, in recent months it has engaged in a bitter feud with Moscow’s military leadership. He has repeatedly blamed Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, for his fighters’ deaths.

10. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was ready to help seek a “peaceful resolution” to an armed rebellion in Russia, in a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, his office said. Belarus also backed Moscow in the conflict.

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