The Wagner Group, a mercenary force led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, has taken control of parts of the southern Russian city Rostov-on-Don in a move Russian President Vladimir Putin had called “a stab in the back” to “our county and our people.”
"We're blockading the city of Rostov and going to Moscow," Prigozhin said in a video which surfaced on Saturday.
Putin has vowed “decisive actions” to quell this “armed rebellion” as units across southwestern Russia scrambled to intercept the force. A “counterterrorist operation regime” was declared in Moscow given authorities upgraded emergency powers, the New York Times reports.
Local residents have been instructed to avoid driving on roads and stay home.
Videos circulating on social-media reportedly show mercenary forces in the Voronezh Oblast, a province which borders eastern Ukraine, boasting the destruction of three Russian military helicopters and one military transport.
In the clip, the Wagner soldier implores Russian military forces not to intervene as mercenary units head for Moscow. “Next, we’ll be moving only on Moscow,” the camouflaged soldier tells viewers.
The complex relationship between Prigozhin and Putin has strained in recent months against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine. In May, the Wagner Group removed mercenaries from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, citing Russian military incompetence and mismanagement.
"I am withdrawing the Wagner PMC units from Bakhmut, because in the absence of ammunition they are doomed to senseless death," Prigozhin said in full military fatigues and carrying an automatic weapon.
The military leader also released a statement to the same effect saying his forces had no choice but to withdraw to rear bases to "lick the wounds."
The group has been widely condemned in the West for its human-rights violations, with many members of Congress calling to designate Wagner a foreign terrorist organization. The Biden administration has so far declined to do so.
According to Western intelligence, Wagner deployed some 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, many of them prisoners. In early May, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since December alone, half of whom were Wagner fighters on the frontlines in Bakhmut.
The British Defence Ministry said the crisis is the "most significant challenge to the Russian state in recent times."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter that "Russia's weakness is obvious," adding that "the longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain, and problems it will have for itself later."
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