Russian Crisis Updates: Amid the Wagner private military company’s insurrection and reports that its personnel are heading towards the Russian capital, the Moscow region has suspended all mass outdoor events until July 1, the authorities announced as reported by the media.
This was done after Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin asked the residents and others to avoid travelling around the city and restrict their movements around the capital as rebels from the mercenary Wagner Group appear to be heading towards the city, reported the BBC.
“The situation is difficult,” Sobyanin said in his statement posted on Telegram.
He added that it’s possible some roads or neighbourhoods in the city will be closed to traffic.
Sobyanin, has just put out a statement on Telegram announcing that “a counter-terrorist operation regime has been declared in Moscow” and that Monday will be a “non-working day” to “minimise risks”, said BBC.
He asked Muscovites to “refrain from travelling around the city as much as possible”.
“City services are on high alert,” he said.
Earlier in the day, life was continuing much as normal, albeit with a heavy security presence, and with roadblocks set up to check vehicles while some bridges have also been closed. Wagner mercenaries appear to be moving north from central regions of Russia, in the direction of the capital, BBC reported.
Verified information from the ground is relatively sparse but Wagner troops appear to be moving north in the direction of Moscow, it said.
This morning, Wagner mercenaries were seen in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don; later, reports came that Wagner troops were in Voronezh, 560km north.
Now, the governor of the Lipetsk region, north of Voronezh, said Wagner troops are moving through the region, BBC reported.
Moscow lies only 400km north. It’s not clear how many troops Wagner has in each place, or how large the group seen in Lipetsk was.
Meanwhile, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian mercenary group chief appeared to suggest he had sent an armed convoy on a 1,200-km charge towards Moscow on Saturday to topple the leadership. Russian officials said a military convoy was on the main motorway linking the southern part of European Russia, bordering Ukraine, with Moscow. Prigozhin announced that he was inside the army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia and that his fighters controlled the city’s military sites.
A fuel depot was set on fire in Russia’s southern city of Voronezh, the local governor announced after Moscow said the army was leading “combat” in the region amid a mutiny from Wagner mercenaries. “In Voronezh, (authorities) are extinguishing a burning fuel depot. There are 100 firefighters and more than 30 vehicles at the scene,” said Governor Alexander Gusev.
“There were no victims according to the first data,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin while addressing the nation on television said the actions of Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner mercenary group were a “deadly threat” to Russia and amount to internal treason.
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the insurrection launched by members of the Wagner mercenary group was evidence of Russia’s inherent political instability.
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