Wagner uprising ‘a direct challenge to Putin’ and shows ‘real cracks’ in Russia’s military direction, US says – Russia-Ukraine war live

Wagner uprising ‘a direct challenge to Putin’s authority’ and shows ‘real cracks’ in Russia’s military direction, US secretary of state says

There has been no change in the US nuclear posture after an armed rebellion in Russia, America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said. He added that the Wagner uprising was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction.

Concerns about the prospect of Wagner millitias gaining access to nuclear weapons had been expressed by Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s security council, as the uprising roiled on Saturday.

“The world will be put on the brink of destruction” if Wagner troops obtain nuclear weapons, Medvedev had warned.

Asked if the US was “prepared for the potential fall of the Putin government” and whether Russia’s nuclear stockpile was “secure”, Blinken said: “We always prepare for every contingency.

“In terms of what happens in Russia, it’s an internal matter for the Russians to figure out. Of course, when we’re dealing with a major power, especially a major power that has nuclear weapons, that’s something that’s of concern, something we’re very focused on.

“We haven’t seen any change in Russia’s nuclear posture. There has not been any change in ours, but it’s something that we’re going to watch very, very carefully.”

Blinken said the US president, Joe Biden, has not tried to reach out to Vladimir Putin since the mutiny.

The Wagner rebellion was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction, he said.

In an interview with CBS, Blinken said the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s forces “raised profound questions about the very premises for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in the first place” and said the rebellion could benefit Ukraine militarily.

“It presents a real distraction for Putin and for Russian authorities, that they have to look at, sort of mind their rear, even as they’re trying to deal with the counteroffensive in Ukraine. I think that creates even greater openings for the Ukrainians to do well on the ground,” Blinken said.

Blinken said the American unity of effort to support Ukraine remains. He said the Ukrainian military strategy, which is currently focused on a counteroffensive, may take weeks or months to play out.

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While Putin was forced to watch his back, Ukraine seemed to have stepped up its counteroffensive.

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On Saturday afternoon, while Prigozhin was moving towards the Kremlin, the Ukraine military reported an offensive near the villages surrounding Bakhmut, taken by Wagner forces in May, after months of fighting. In the evening, Oleksandr Tarnavsky, a Ukrainian commander, told the national news agency of Ukraine, Ukrinform, that its forces had liberated territories near the city of Krasnohorivka, in the Donetsk region, which pro-Russia separatists have occupied since 2014.

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The sudden resumption of Ukrainian attacks on the day of the attempted coup was confirmed on Sunday by Russia’s defence ministry, which said it had repelled attempted attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported. The ministry said it had also repelled 10 attacks in the Bakhmut area, abandoned by the Wagner troops.

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Some political analysts fear that a wounded Putin could become a more dangerous Putin. But in Kyiv, on Sunday morning, the feeling was that something had changed since yesterday.

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Mykhailo Podolyak, a key adviser to Zelenskiy, said: “The situation inside Russia is uncontrollable, the flimsy structure is held together by inertia on a wing and a prayer.”

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“Meanwhile,” he added, “forecasters predict new gusts of wind …”

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The US secretary of state has declined to “speculate” on the whereabouts of Vladimir Putin following an armed rebellion in Russia.

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Speculation was rampant online during the Wagner mercenary fighters’ mutiny that Putin may have left Moscow. Flight data showing his presidential plane on the move added to the uncertainty.

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Today, footage of Putin was released on Russian state TV, but it was reportedly recorded prior to the uprising led by the Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.

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During a series of media interviews, Antony Blinken was asked on CBS News where the Russian president might be right now and whether he was in Moscow.

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“I think you’ve seen cracks emerge that weren’t there before.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with CNN’s Dana Bash on the abandoned mutiny of the Wagner Group in Russia and what this could mean for Russian President Vladimir Putin. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/lQnU5UYuFs

— CNN (@CNN) June 25, 2023

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“I don’t want to speculate on that, or what information that we have,” Blinken responded. “Again, we’re watching that carefully.”

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“I think one of the things this tells you is that we still don’t have finality in terms of what was actually agreed between Prigozhin and Putin.

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“I suspect that we’re going to learn more in the days and weeks ahead about what deal they struck.”

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Blinken told CNN that the mutiny over the weekend was “extraordinary” and “raises lots of questions”.

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“I think we are seeing cracks emerged that were not there before,” Blinken added.

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He pointed out that 16 months previously, Russian forces had expected to take Kyiv “in a matter of days”. “Now, they have to be focused on defending Moscow – Russia’s capital – against mercenaries and Putin’s own men.”

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There has been no change in the US nuclear posture after an armed rebellion in Russia, America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said. He added that the Wagner uprising was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction.

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Concerns about the prospect of Wagner millitias gaining access to nuclear weapons had been expressed by Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s security council, as the uprising roiled on Saturday.

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“The world will be put on the brink of destruction” if Wagner troops obtain nuclear weapons, Medvedev had warned.

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Asked if the US was “prepared for the potential fall of the Putin government” and whether Russia’s nuclear stockpile was “secure”, Blinken said: “We always prepare for every contingency.

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“In terms of what happens in Russia, it’s an internal matter for the Russians to figure out. Of course, when we’re dealing with a major power, especially a major power that has nuclear weapons, that’s something that’s of concern, something we’re very focused on.

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“We haven’t seen any change in Russia’s nuclear posture. There has not been any change in ours, but it’s something that we’re going to watch very, very carefully.”

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Blinken said the US president, Joe Biden, has not tried to reach out to Vladimir Putin since the mutiny.

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The Wagner rebellion was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction, he said.

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In an interview with CBS, Blinken said the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s forces “raised profound questions about the very premises for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in the first place” and said the rebellion could benefit Ukraine militarily.

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“It presents a real distraction for Putin and for Russian authorities, that they have to look at, sort of mind their rear, even as they’re trying to deal with the counteroffensive in Ukraine. I think that creates even greater openings for the Ukrainians to do well on the ground,” Blinken said.

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Blinken said the American unity of effort to support Ukraine remains. He said the Ukrainian military strategy, which is currently focused on a counteroffensive, may take weeks or months to play out.

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uprising ‘a direct challenge to Putin’s authority’ and shows ‘real cracks’ in Russia’s military direction, US secretary of state says”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Sun 25 Jun 2023 10.56 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Sat 24 Jun 2023 21.19 EDT”},{“id”:”649835fc8f084ea43c43ffd1″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

An adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister has described the Wagner rebellion in Russia as “the most ridiculous attempt at mutiny” ever.

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“This only makes Russia weaker and makes us stronger,” Yuriy Sak told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend.

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“What happened yesterday in Russia, it will probably go down in history as the most ridiculous attempt at mutiny that was ever attempted.

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“It will have no bearing on our plans. We are on a mission to liberate our land and I just hope that our allies watching this ridiculous mutiny yesterday, they understand that the only way to end the war in Ukraine is to ensure that Ukraine defeats Russia militarily.

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“There can be no hope for some kind of internal transformation in Russia. It’s only going to happen on the battlefield.”

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President Vladimir Putin has appeared on Russian state TV for the first time since the armed rebellion threatened to topple his regime, though the comments appear to have been recorded before the mutiny.

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Putin renewed his commitment to the war in Ukraine, calling the “special military operation” his top priority.

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According to Reuters, he said “I start and end my day with this”.

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President Putin has made an address on state television across Russia to say he is “confident” in realising all his plans and “tasks” related to the “special military operation” in Ukraine, adding he “starts and ends [his] day with this”.https://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3

📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/RTpM3KXjoh

— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 25, 2023

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He also said he was in “constant contact” with defence ministry officials, Reuters reported.

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According to Sky, Putin said he is “confident” in realising all his plans and “tasks” related to the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

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The comments in an interview with Kremlin correspondent Pavel Zarubin were broadcast by Rossiya state television. The full interview is due to be broadcast later on Sunday.

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Sky reports that the president’s comments were recorded before the Wagner mutiny.

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Russian air strikes on the Ukrainian capital yesterday left five people dead, the city’s mayor has said.

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Vitali Klitschko said two more bodies had been found on Sunday under the rubble of an apartment building, Ukrainian media are reporting.

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Photos by the State Emergency Service show the apartment almost completely destroyed, it having been struck by a missile yesterday during Russian strikes on Kyiv.

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⚡️Mayor: 2 more bodies found in Kyiv building after Russia’s June 24 missile strike.

Two more bodies were found under the rubble of an apartment building a day after it was hit by missile debris during a Russian strike on Kyiv, mayor Vitali Klitschko reported on June 25. pic.twitter.com/YC7juSdJRJ

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 25, 2023

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Klitschko reportedly said rescue operations continue and that 11 people were wounded, and two of who were taken to hospital.

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Three people died due to debris hitting a building in the Solomyansk district, in Kyiv and about ten were injured as rescue operations are ongoing, Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said on Saturday.

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Guardian reporters visited the site of the incident. Some upper floors of the high-rise building were destroyed, with debris littered in the surrounding streets, ambulances carrying the injured. Russian missiles had targeted at least five regions across Ukraine.

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All transport restrictions in Russia’s Rostov region have been lifted, including those on highways, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing local officials.

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“Bus and railway stations are working in normal mode. Tickets are on sale, all destinations are on schedule,” Sergey Tyurin, deputy minister of regional policy and mass communications for the Rostov region was quoted as saying.

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Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta is reporting that PMC Wagner’s military hardware damaged over 10,000 square metres (6.2 square miles) of road surface.

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In Rostov-on-Don, PMC Wagner’s military hardware damaged over 10,000 square metres of road surface
According to Mayor Alexey Logvinenko, the repairs will begin today, the plan is for them to be finished in two days.https://t.co/0cZacHDtf7 pic.twitter.com/xvVYUGBne1

— Novaya Gazeta Europe (@novayagazeta_en) June 25, 2023

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It cites Mayor Alexey Logvinenko as saying it is expected that repairs to the road will take two days.

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The Wagner fighters had captured the city of Rostov overnight on Friday and had reportedly maintained complete control of the region on Saturday.

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But on Saturday night, Wagner fighters loaded tanks on trailers and began withdrawing from the Rostov military headquarters they had seized, a Reuters witness said.

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transport restrictions lifted in region previously controlled by Wagner mutineers”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Sun 25 Jun 2023 10.56 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Sat 24 Jun 2023 21.19 EDT”},{“id”:”6497d6e88f08c081c5bb7e3a”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

If you’re just joining us, here’s a roundup of all the latest developments:

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n

• In an abrupt about-face, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said he had called off his troops’ march on Moscow and ordered them to move out of Rostov. Under a deal brokered by Belarus, Prigozhin agreed to leave Russia and move to Belarus. He will not face charges and Wagner troops who took part in the rebellion will not face any action in recognition of their previous service to Russia.

n

• In a statement, Prigozhin said that he wanted to avoid the spilling of “Russian blood”. “Now the moment has come when blood can be shed,” he said. “Therefore, realising all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed from one side, we will turn our convoys around and go in the opposite direction to our field camps.”

n

• The Wagner leader was later pictured leaving the headquarters of the southern military district (SMD) in Rostov, which his forces had occupied on Saturday. Wagner forces also shot down three military helicopters and had entered the Lipetsk region, about 360km (225 miles) south of Moscow, before they were called back.

n

• Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko’s press office was the first to announce that Prigozhin would be backing down, saying that Lukashenko had negotiated a de-escalation with the Wagner head after talking to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Lukashenko said that Putin has since thanked him for his negotiation efforts.

n

• Putin has not publicly commented on Lukashenko’s deal with Prigozhin. He appeared on television earlier on Saturday in an emergency broadcast, issuing a nationwide call for unity in the face of a mutinous strike that he compared to the revolution of 1917. “Any internal mutiny is a deadly threat to our state, to us as a nation,” he said.

n

• Putin reportedly took a plane out of Moscow heading north-west on Saturday afternoon. It is unclear where he went or his current whereabouts.

n

• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Putin was “obviously very afraid” and “probably hiding”. In his latest evening address, Zelenskiy said: “Today the world saw that the bosses of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Complete chaos. Complete absence of any predictability. And it is happening on Russian territory, which is fully loaded with weapons.”

n

• US spy agencies picked up information suggesting the Wagner leader was planning to take action against Russia’s military leadership as early as mid-June, US media has reported. The Washington Post and New York Times that said US intelligence officials had conducted briefings at the White House, the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill about the potential for unrest in nuclear-armed Russia a full day before it unfolded.

n

• Analysts have been confounded by events, with most saying it is too early to say whether Putin will fall but agreeing that he has been substantially damaged by the mutiny. The Institute for the Study of War noted that the Kremlin struggled to put together a coherent response to the mutiny and that “Wagner likely could have reached the outskirts of Moscow if Prigozhin chose to order them to do so.”

n

• Ukraine’s military said on Saturday its forces made advances near Bakhmut, on the eastern front, and further south. Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said an offensive was launched near a group of villages ringing Bakhmut, which was taken by Wagner forces in May after months of fighting. Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, commander of the southern front, said Ukrainian forces had liberated an area near Krasnohorivka, west of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk.

n

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The Kremlin struggled to put together a coherent response to the Wagner mutiny “highlighting internal security weaknesses likely due to surprise and the impact of heavy losses in Ukraine,” the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest analysis of the conflict.

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Russian authorities mobilised Rosgvardia, the Russian National Police, the US thinktank wrote, but “ISW has not observed any reports or footage suggesting that Rosgvardia units engaged with Wagner at any point”.

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n

Rosgvardia’s founding mission is to protect internal threats to the security of the Russian government such as an advance on Moscow, and it is notable that Rosgvardia failed to engage even as Wagner captured critical military assets in Rostov-on-Don and destroyed Russian military aircraft

n

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It also noted that though Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said he had mobilised his forces – which supposedly specialise in domestic security – in response to the Wagner advance, they also “unsurprisingly” never engaged with Wagner. This is “in line with Kadyrov’s paramount objective of maintaining his own internal security force,” the ISW said.

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It concluded:

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n

The Kremlin’s dedicated internal security organs failed to respond to an independent military force capturing the headquarters of the SMD [southern military district] and advancing on Moscow – and Wagner likely could have reached the outskirts of Moscow if Prigozhin chose to order them to do so.

n

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Russian president Vladimir Putin is “obviously very afraid” and “probably hiding”, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in his latest evening address.

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“The man from the Kremlin is obviously very afraid and probably hiding somewhere, not showing himself. I am sure that he is no longer in Moscow … He knows what he is afraid of because he himself created this threat,” Zelenskiy said.

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Putin has not commented on the Belarus-brokered deal that negotiated Prigozhin’s exit from Russia and the withdrawal of Wagner troops from Rostov. He is believed to have left Moscow on a plane on Saturday afternoon and his whereabouts are unclear.

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His apparent departure from the capital contrasts notably with that of Zelenskiy, who remained in Kyiv when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last year.

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“Today the world saw that the bosses of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Complete chaos. Complete absence of any predictability. And it is happening on Russian territory, which is fully loaded with weapons,” said Zelenskiy.

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“In one day, they lost several of their million-plus cities and showed all Russian bandits, mercenaries, oligarchs and anyone else how easy it is to capture Russian cities and, probably, arsenals with weapons.”

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‘obviously very afraid’ and ‘probably hiding’, Zelenskiy says”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Sun 25 Jun 2023 10.56 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Sat 24 Jun 2023 21.19 EDT”},{“id”:”649799848f08657ec73226a0″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

US spy agencies picked up information suggesting Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning to take action against Russia’s military leadership as early as mid-June, US media has reported.

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Over the past two weeks there was “high concern” about what may happen regarding president Vladimir Putin’ grip on power and the country’s nuclear arsenal, the Washington Post reported, citing anonymous US officials.

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The exact timing and nature of Prigozhin’s plans were not clear until Friday, when the Wagner leader first began posting about an alleged Russian rocket attack on his forces, but “there were enough signals to be able to tell the leadership … that something was up,” the Post quoted one official as saying.

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According to the New York Times, senior American national security officials had indications as early as Wednesday that Prigozhin was preparing to take action and intelligence officials conducted briefings with the Biden administration and defence officials on the same day.

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A narrow group of congressional leaders were informed on Thursday, when additional confirmation of the plot came in, the Times reported.

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Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has agreed to leave Russia and ordered his fighters to withdraw from Rostov and halt their march on Moscow, under the terms of a deal negotiated by Belarus.

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At the end of an extraordinary day, during which a visibly angry Vladimir Putin had made an emergency television broadcast railing against the “deadly threat to our state”, Progozhin said that he wanted to avoid shedding Russian blood and would order his troops back to their bases instead.

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Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the criminal case that had been opened against Prigozhin for armed mutiny would be dropped, and the Wagner fighters who had taken part in his “march for justice” would not face any action in recognition of their previous service to Russia.

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Videos later showed Prigozhin, who said his men had reached within 125 miles (200 km) of the capital, and his fighters leaving Rostov.

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Here’s our full report by Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer:

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Events in Russia have been unfolding at breakneck pace over the past 24 hours after Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a march on Moscow aiming to oust the country’s military leadership, only to call it off on the same day and agree to leave the country for Belarus.

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Here’s a roundup of the key developments:

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• In an abrupt about-face, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said he had called off his troops’ march on Moscow and ordered them to move out of Rostov. Under a deal brokered by Belarus, Prigozhin agreed to leave Russia and move to Belarus. He will not face charges and Wagner troops who took part in the rebellion will not face any action in recognition of their previous service to Russia.

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• In a statement, Prigozhin said that he wanted to avoid the spilling of “Russian blood”. “Now the moment has come when blood can be shed,” he said. “Therefore, realising all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed from one side, we will turn our convoys around and go in the opposite direction to our field camps.”

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• The Wagner leader was later pictured leaving the headquarters of the southern military district (SMD) in Rostov, which his forces had occupied on Saturday. Wagner forces also shot down three military helicopters and had entered the Lipetsk region, about 360km (225 miles) south of Moscow, before they were called back.

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• Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko’s press office was the first to announce that Prigozhin would be backing down, saying that Lukashenko had negotiated a de-escalation with the Wagner head after talking to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Lukashenko said that Putin has since thanked him for his negotiation efforts.

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• Putin has not publicly commented on Lukashenko’s deal with Prigozhin. He appeared on television earlier on Saturday in an emergency broadcast, issuing a nationwide call for unity in the face of a mutinous strike that he compared to the revolution of 1917. “Any internal mutiny is a deadly threat to our state, to us as a nation,” he said.

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• Putin reportedly took a plane out of Moscow heading north-west on Saturday afternoon. It is unclear where he went or his current whereabouts.

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• Before the Belarus deal was announced, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that: “Everyone who chooses the path of evil destroys himself. Whoever throws hundreds of thousands into the war, eventually must barricade himself in the Moscow region from those whom he himself armed.”

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• Ukraine’s military said on Saturday its forces made advances near Bakhmut, on the eastern front, and further south. Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said an offensive was launched near a group of villages ringing Bakhmut, which was taken by Wagner forces in May after months of fighting. Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, commander of the southern front, said Ukrainian forces had liberated an area near Krasnohorivka, west of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk.

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I’m Helen Livingstone and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news on the conflict in Ukraine and the crisis in Russia.

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For nearly 24 hours, millions of Ukrainians believed that the war with Russia might be nearing its conclusion. From 9am on Friday, when Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin announced his march on Moscow, until 8pm on Saturday, when mercenary troops with their tanks and armoured vehicles were just over 300km (180 miles) from the Russian capital, the battered country glimpsed the end of Putin’s regime.

Then, suddenly, when the Russian warlord called off his advance, the revived enthusiasm quickly ebbed away, giving way to disappointment and frustration, with many refusing to believe the Belarusian brokered deal to end the armed uprising was real.

“I had positive feelings,” said Serhii, 27, from Kyiv. “There was hope at first, there was hope for a coup. Hope that it will all be over. Hope that there was going to be a change of power in Russia and a troops withdrawal from Ukraine. Then, suddenly that was it! End of the movie. Nothing happened… I felt so disappointed.”

Read more reactions from Ukranians who spoke to Lorenzo:

• Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has agreed to leave Russia and ordered his fighters to withdraw from Rostov and halt their march on Moscow, under the terms of a deal negotiated by Belarus.

• President Vladimir Putin has appeared on Russian state TV for the first time since the armed rebellion threatened to topple his regime, though the comments appear to have been recorded before the mutiny.

• US spy agencies picked up information suggesting Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning to take action against Russia’s military leadership as early as mid-June, US media has reported.

• Russian president Vladimir Putin is “obviously very afraid” and “probably hiding”, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in his latest evening address.

• The Kremlin struggled to put together a coherent response to the Wagner mutiny “highlighting internal security weaknesses likely due to surprise and the impact of heavy losses in Ukraine,” the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest analysis of the conflict.

• All transport restrictions in Russia’s Rostov region – which was controlled by Vagneer mutineers on Saturday – have been lifted, including those on highways, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing local officials.

• An adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister has described the Wagner rebellion in Russia as “the most ridiculous attempt at mutiny” ever.

• There has been no change in the US nuclear posture after an armed rebellion in Russia, America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said. He added that the Wagner uprising was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction.

China on Sunday said it supported Russia in “protecting national stability”, in Beijing’s first official remarks on a short-lived armed uprising led by the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin.

“As a friendly neighbour and a new era comprehensive strategic cooperative partner, China supports Russia in protecting national stability and achieving development and prosperity,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The issue was Russia’s “internal affair”, the ministry added.

Beijing had until late Sunday refrained from commenting on the weekend’s turmoil in Russia, which saw the mutiny’s leader agree to go into exile after President Vladimir Putin was forced to accept an amnesty deal.

China earlier made no comment on the rebellion that Putin said threatened Russia’s very existence while Western leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden said they were closely monitoring the situation.

“China will support Russia while stressing no interference of its internal affairs,” prominent Chinese military expert and TV commentator Song Zhongping told Reuters.

On Sunday, China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko in Beijing.

The two diplomats discussed “China-Russia relations,” Beijing said, as well as “international and regional issues of common concern”.

While Putin was forced to watch his back, Ukraine seemed to have stepped up its counteroffensive.

On Saturday afternoon, while Prigozhin was moving towards the Kremlin, the Ukraine military reported an offensive near the villages surrounding Bakhmut, taken by Wagner forces in May, after months of fighting. In the evening, Oleksandr Tarnavsky, a Ukrainian commander, told the national news agency of Ukraine, Ukrinform, that its forces had liberated territories near the city of Krasnohorivka, in the Donetsk region, which pro-Russia separatists have occupied since 2014.

The sudden resumption of Ukrainian attacks on the day of the attempted coup was confirmed on Sunday by Russia’s defence ministry, which said it had repelled attempted attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported. The ministry said it had also repelled 10 attacks in the Bakhmut area, abandoned by the Wagner troops.

Some political analysts fear that a wounded Putin could become a more dangerous Putin. But in Kyiv, on Sunday morning, the feeling was that something had changed since yesterday.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a key adviser to Zelenskiy, said: “The situation inside Russia is uncontrollable, the flimsy structure is held together by inertia on a wing and a prayer.”

“Meanwhile,” he added, “forecasters predict new gusts of wind …”

The US secretary of state has declined to “speculate” on the whereabouts of Vladimir Putin following an armed rebellion in Russia.

Speculation was rampant online during the Wagner mercenary fighters’ mutiny that Putin may have left Moscow. Flight data showing his presidential plane on the move added to the uncertainty.

Today, footage of Putin was released on Russian state TV, but it was reportedly recorded prior to the uprising led by the Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.

During a series of media interviews, Antony Blinken was asked on CBS News where the Russian president might be right now and whether he was in Moscow.

“I don’t want to speculate on that, or what information that we have,” Blinken responded. “Again, we’re watching that carefully.”

“I think one of the things this tells you is that we still don’t have finality in terms of what was actually agreed between Prigozhin and Putin.

“I suspect that we’re going to learn more in the days and weeks ahead about what deal they struck.”

Blinken told CNN that the mutiny over the weekend was “extraordinary” and “raises lots of questions”.

“I think we are seeing cracks emerged that were not there before,” Blinken added.

He pointed out that 16 months previously, Russian forces had expected to take Kyiv “in a matter of days”. “Now, they have to be focused on defending Moscow – Russia’s capital – against mercenaries and Putin’s own men.”

The Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, has emerged as an early beneficiary of the aborted Wagner march on Moscow, but those benefits may not have a long shelf life.

Whether or not Lukashenko played quite the enterprising broker’s role described in the statements coming out of the Kremlin and Minsk (and most analysts are sceptical) he has emerged in the Russian press as the hero of the hour, the man who saved Moscow.

That is very much a step up from the part of a frail provisional satrap, which Lukashenko has played since Vladimir Putin stepped in to save his regime in the wake of apparent election defeat in 2020.

Read Julian’s full assessment of Lukashenko’s changing fortunes:

“What happened in Russia doesn’t make any sense” Yuriy Sak, an adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister told Sky News.

He said it “feels very bizarre” that the Wagner rebels were able to get so close to Moscow before “nothing happened”.

Sak said there were “more questions than answers to what happened yesterday in Russia”.

He stressed that “for us, every participant in yesterday’s charade is a terrorist and a war criminal” and called the armed rebellion “infighting between different factions of a terrorist regime”.

On Saturday in Copenhagen, as the world trained its eyes on the apparent imminent collapse of Vladimir Putin’s regime, a gathering of senior government security advisers from the global south and the west met with Ukraine’s leadership to discuss a path to peace. The gathering, the first uniting the global south and western powers at this level over Ukraine has the potential to be even more ominous for Putin.

The presence of government security officials from South Africa, India, Brazil, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, countries that have refused to take sides in the Ukraine conflict, was seen as a significant sign of engagement, if not, endorsement of Ukraine’s defence of its sovereign territory. Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser had been due to attend, but the momentous events inside Russia on Saturday meant he joined by video link. Senior advisers from G7 countries were also present, including from Italy, the UK, France, Canada, Germany, Japan. Without communiques and fanfares, and away from media glare, it was a serious chance to end the divisions between the global south and the west over the terms to stop Putin’s invasion. One official said they were not trying to browbeat the global south, but explore what their concerns were. The possibility that Putin has been weakened internally might help ease some countries off the fence.

The United Arab Emirates and China, two of the other most prominent non-aligned countries, did not attend. China has been touting its own peace plan, as have a group of African nations, and the meeting was a chance to identify commonalities. The meeting was hosted by Barbara Bertelsen, the state secretary in the Danish prime minister’s office.

The most complex issue is whether Russia needs any security guarantees from the west.

Ukraine’s Andriy Yermak said he told the meeting that the Ukraine peace formula should “be the basis for securing a just and lasting peace in Ukraine since it was based on the principles of the UN charter and international law”.

He said the national security advisers had agreed that the new format for discussion of the war was worth continuing. One of the items was how to convene a peace summit of world leaders and the venue for such an event. Denmark, Paris the UN headquarters and Ukraine itself have all been suggested.

Yermak said the meeting of the advisers was “a clear signal of respect for Ukraine and our just struggle and support for territorial integrity of Ukraine”.

He added “the participation of so many countries in the global south demonstrates the significant positive changes are taking place in the relations between our countries and a qualitatively new level of mutual relation”. Among those attending were Celso Amorim, Brazil’s national security adviser.

The Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, also contacted the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in a bid to create a mechanism for promoting political and consular consultations. The Iranians insisted they were opposed to the war and called on the west to stop arming one side in the war. Iran has been accused of supplying drones to Russia for use in Ukraine.

There has been no change in the US nuclear posture after an armed rebellion in Russia, America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said. He added that the Wagner uprising was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction.

Concerns about the prospect of Wagner millitias gaining access to nuclear weapons had been expressed by Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s security council, as the uprising roiled on Saturday.

“The world will be put on the brink of destruction” if Wagner troops obtain nuclear weapons, Medvedev had warned.

Asked if the US was “prepared for the potential fall of the Putin government” and whether Russia’s nuclear stockpile was “secure”, Blinken said: “We always prepare for every contingency.

“In terms of what happens in Russia, it’s an internal matter for the Russians to figure out. Of course, when we’re dealing with a major power, especially a major power that has nuclear weapons, that’s something that’s of concern, something we’re very focused on.

“We haven’t seen any change in Russia’s nuclear posture. There has not been any change in ours, but it’s something that we’re going to watch very, very carefully.”

Blinken said the US president, Joe Biden, has not tried to reach out to Vladimir Putin since the mutiny.

The Wagner rebellion was a “direct challenge to Putin’s authority” that shows “real cracks” in Russia’s military direction, he said.

In an interview with CBS, Blinken said the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s forces “raised profound questions about the very premises for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in the first place” and said the rebellion could benefit Ukraine militarily.

“It presents a real distraction for Putin and for Russian authorities, that they have to look at, sort of mind their rear, even as they’re trying to deal with the counteroffensive in Ukraine. I think that creates even greater openings for the Ukrainians to do well on the ground,” Blinken said.

Blinken said the American unity of effort to support Ukraine remains. He said the Ukrainian military strategy, which is currently focused on a counteroffensive, may take weeks or months to play out.

In Kyiv, the silence of another summer evening is broken by the loud, piercing sound of an air raid warning. The alert app on our mobile phone sends out a warning to take cover, and Telegram channels inform us that the air defence system is operating, so we need to be careful.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the people of Ukraine have been living in a state of constant watchfulness, adjusting their lives to the lack of sleep and psychological consequences of terror from above.

The chaos within Russia over the past few days makes the question of what comes next for Ukraine even more important.

Read Olha’s view that Ukraine will need help to rebuild physically and psychologically:

The Moscow stock exchange, banks and financial institutions are expected to operate as usual on Monday, Russia’s central bank said on Sunday, despite Moscow’s mayor having declared it a non-working day when mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was leading his Wagner forces towards the city.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Saturday asked people to refrain from trips around the city because of a counterterrorism operation.

The mutiny was later aborted in a deal that spared Prigozhin and his mercenaries from facing criminal charges. The deal also exiled Prigozhin to Belarus.

Moscow’s non-working order remains in place even though the mutiny was aborted.

“On June 26, trading and settlement on all Moscow Exchange markets will be conducted as usual, including all trading periods and instruments,” Moscow Exchange said in a statement.

SPB Exchange, Russia’s second-largest bourse, said it would also be operating as normal.

The central bank said banks should ensure the continuous and smooth operation of Russia’s financial markets.

The UK must prepare for a “deeply dangerous and unpredictable” post-Vladimir Putin Russia, a security expert has warned after the Russian president’s authority was weakened by an attempted rebellion.

Edward Lucas, a senior adviser at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: “We’ve made very little preparation in this country and done very little thinking about post-Putin Russia.

“There will be all sorts of dilemmas and difficulties we face and we need to start thinking right now about how we deal with them.

“And that’s everything from do we worry about Russia falling into the arms of China? Is there going to be disintegration? Will it go full on fascist? Will we have a long period of confusion and chaos? Will they use their nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip to try and get things?

“And these are all the questions that we ought to be dealing with and I’m just not seeing it in most western capitals.

“We face perhaps a decade or more of dealing with a deeply dangerous and unpredictable Russia without even the sort of superficial certainty we have of having Putin in power.”

An adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister has described the Wagner rebellion in Russia as “the most ridiculous attempt at mutiny” ever.

“This only makes Russia weaker and makes us stronger,” Yuriy Sak told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend.

“What happened yesterday in Russia, it will probably go down in history as the most ridiculous attempt at mutiny that was ever attempted.

“It will have no bearing on our plans. We are on a mission to liberate our land and I just hope that our allies watching this ridiculous mutiny yesterday, they understand that the only way to end the war in Ukraine is to ensure that Ukraine defeats Russia militarily.

“There can be no hope for some kind of internal transformation in Russia. It’s only going to happen on the battlefield.”