Tag: Russia

Pres. Putin slams ‘betrayal’ as Wagner boss launches revolt

MOSCOW, June 24, 2023 (AFP) – President Vladimir Putin vowed Saturday he would not allow Russia to slip into civil war, after the leader of the Wagner mercenary force seized a key military headquarters overseeing the offensive in Ukraine. The rapidly moving events mark the most serious challenge yet to the Kremlin chief’s long rule and Russia’s most serious security crisis since he came to power in late 1999. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prighozin said his […]

Developing story: Russian army carrying out ‘combat measures’ in Voronezh region: governor

MOSCOW, June 24, 2023 (AFP) – The governor of Russia’s southern region of Voronezh said Saturday that Russian military were taking necessary measures to suppress an attempt by the Wagner mercenary group to topple the country’s senior military leadership. “As part of the counter-terrorist operation on the territory of the Voronezh region, the armed forces of the Russian Federation are carrying out necessary operational and combat measures,” the official, Alexander Gusev, said in a statement […]

Developing story: Pres. Putin speaks to Belarus ally amid Wagner unrest

MOSCOW, June 24, 2023 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday spoke to his Belarus ally, President Alexander Lukashenko, in his first international phone call since a munity by Wagner mercenaries inside Russia. “The president of Russia called the president of Belarus this morning, there was a phone conversation,” Belarusian state media reported. “Vladimir Putin informed his Belarusian colleague about the situation in Russia.”

DEVELOPING STORY: Wagner mutiny ‘deadly threat’ to Russia: Putin

MOSCOW, June 24, 2023 (AFP) – President Vladimir Putin on Saturday described efforts by the Wagner military group to unseat the country’s top brass as a “deadly threat” to Russia and urged the country to unite. “Any internal turmoil is a deadly threat to our statehood and to us as a nation. This is a blow to Russia and to our people,” Putin said in an address broadcast on television, adding: “This battle, when the […]

DEVELOPING STORY: Putin says situation ‘difficult’ in Rostov in southern Russia

  MOSCOW, June 24, 2023 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday acknowledged a “difficult” situation was unfolding in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where the Wagner mercenary group has taken control of key military sites in an effort to oust Russian military’s top brass. “There will be decisive measures taken on stabilising the situation in Rostov-on-Don,” Putin said in an address to Russians. “It remains difficult and the work of civil and military […]

DEVELOPING STORY: Wagner chief says he is inside Rostov army HQ, controls city’s military sites

MOSCOW, June 24, 2023 (AFP) – The head of Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin announced Saturday that he was inside the army HQ in southern Russia’s Rostov-on-Don and that his fighters control the city’s military sites, including an aerodrome, after vowing to bring down Moscow’s top brass. “We are inside the (army) headquarters, it is 7:30 am (0430 GMT),” Prigozhin said in a video on Telegram. “Military sites in Rostov, including an aerodrome, are under […]

Security tightened in several Russian regions

MOSCOW, June 24, 2023 (AFP) – The mayor of Moscow said on Saturday that “anti-terror” measures were being taken in the Russian capital after the chief of mercenary group Wagner vowed to bring down the country’s military leadership. Authorities in the regions of Rostov and Lipetsk also said security had been reinforced there. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said earlier his units, which spearheaded an assault in eastern Ukraine, had entered the southern region of Rostov. […]

Russian authorities in Lipetsk region announce reinforced security, Rostov residents urged to remain indoors

MOSCOW, June 24, 2023 (AFP) – Russian authorities said Saturday that security measures had been tightened in several regions, after the chief of mercenary group Wagner said his forces had crossed the border from Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin vowed to “go to the end” to topple the Russian military leadership, whom he accused of launching strikes on his men, while the country’s prosecutor general said he was under investigation for “armed rebellion”. “A decision has been […]

Wagner chief vows to topple Russian military leadership

MOSCOW, June 24, 2023 (AFP) – The head of the Wagner mercenary group vowed Saturday to “go to the end” to topple the Russian military leadership, whom he accused of launching strikes on his men, while the country’s prosecutor general said he was under investigation for “armed rebellion”. “We are going onwards and we will go to the end,” Yevgeny Prigozhin, 62, said in an audio message. “We will destroy everything that stands in our […]

Moscow accuses Wagner of stoking ‘civil conflict’

MOSCOW, June 23, 2023 (AFP) – Russian authorities on Saturday accused the head of the Wagner mercenary group of trying to start a “civil conflict” and called for his detention. The FSB security service’s probe into calls to stage an “armed mutiny” came after Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin accused Moscow of targeting his forces with deadly missile strikes and vowed to retaliate. Prigozhin, 62, urged Russians to join his forces and punish Moscow’s military leadership […]

Crimea residents dismiss water concerns after dam blast

By Andrey BORODULIN Agence France-Presse SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine, June 23, 2023 (AFP) – Selling lavender at a train station in Ukraine’s Russian-annexed Crimea, Tatyana Bocharnikova said she was unfazed by the fighting or potential water supply cuts after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. “The wells are full of water, the river is too and the reservoirs are full,” the 64-year-old said in the peninsula’s regional capital, Simferopol. The Kakhovka dam creates a reservoir which feeds […]

Squatting Russian diplomat sparks standoff in Australia

CANBERRA, June 23, 2023 (AFP) — A mystery Russian diplomat with a penchant for cigarettes on Friday sparked a national security standoff between Canberra and the Kremlin, which is defying Australia’s efforts to kick him off a messy building site near parliament. Australia last week blocked Russia from building its new embassy on a scruffy parcel of land a stone’s throw from Parliament House, after intelligence officials warned that Moscow would use the site as […]