The surrounding area is also an important oil, gas and grains region. He said he had captured the headquarters of Russia's Southern Military District without firing a shot in Rostov, which serves as the main rear logistical hub for Russia's entire invasion force in Ukraine. He launched the apparent mutiny on Friday after alleging that the military had killed many of his fighters in an air strike. This month, he defied orders to sign a contract placing his troops under Defence Ministry command. He railed for months against the military's top brass, especially Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, accusing them of incompetence and of withholding ammunition from his fighters. His men fought the bloodiest battles of the 16-month Ukraine war, including for the eastern city of Bakhmut. The fighters led by Prigozhin, a former convict, include thousands of ex-prisoners recruited from Russian jails. Video obtained by Reuters showed troop carriers and two flatbed trucks each carrying a tank driving 30 miles (50 km) beyond the town of Voronezh, more than halfway to Moscow.Ī helicopter fired on them near Voronezh, where a fuel depot exploded in a fireball shortly after a helicopter flew by, video obtained by Reuters showed. An absence of any predictability,' Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. 'Today the world can see that the masters of Russia control nothing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Wagner revolt, which sparked a flurry of high-level calls between Western leaders, exposed turmoil in Russia. 'We are fighting for the lives and security of our people, for our sovereignty and independence, for the right to remain Russia, a state with a thousand-year history,' Putin said, vowing punishment for those who 'prepared an armed insurrection'. In a televised address from the Kremlin, Putin earlier said the Wagner rebellion put Russia's very existence under threat.

Ultimate battle tanks unblocked