Russian mercenary commander Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that his “Wagner” fighters had crossed the border into Russia from Ukraine and were ready to go “to the end” against Moscow’s army, hours after the Kremlin accused them of an armed rebellion. – The technical enmity between Prigozhin and the military leadership seems to be coming to an end, Russia’s FSB has opened a criminal case against him, reports TASS. He asked the forces of Wagner’s private military company to ignore his orders and arrest him. Prigozhin previously claimed, without providing evidence, that the Russian military leadership had destroyed a large number of its troops in an airstrike and vowed to punish them.

Basic information about the war in Ukraine, day 486, LIVETEXT:

09:00A coup in Russia? Accused of armed rebellion, Prigozhin asks Shoigu and Gerasimov to come to Rostov / Emergency measures in Moscow

04:07On Saturday morning, the wreckage of a drone fell into a parking lot in the center of Kyiv, emergency services were dispatched to the scene, Mayor Vitaliy Klychko reported on Telegram. On Saturday morning, for more than an hour, air raid signals sounded throughout Ukraine, explosions were reported in Kharkiv, Dnipro and other cities.

04:00Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army, Valery Gerasimov, of having ordered an airstrike on the “Wagner” PMC convoys entering Rostov “among civilian vehicles,” reports CNN.

“The chief of the General Staff just gave the order to raise the planes and open fire on the convoys that are moving among civilian equipment and trucks,” Prigozhin said. “He doesn’t care who he kills. They have been killing their own civilians for a year and a half instead of fighting the enemy.”

Prigozhin praised the Russian pilots for “refusing to carry out these criminal orders.”

01:59The Ministry of Defense of Russia said on Saturday morning that Kyiv is concentrating several brigades for an offensive in the direction of Bakhmut, taking advantage of the “provocation” of the head of the GVK Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin, reports CNN.

01:30 On Friday evening, security was increased in government buildings, transport facilities and other key places in Moscow, the state news agency TASS reported, citing a source in the security service, according to Reuters.

01:14The conflict in Ukraine allowed the unpredictable head of the Wagner paramilitary group to establish himself as a major player in Russia. But by calling for an uprising against the General Staff, Yevgeny Prigozhin crossed the Rubicon, writes AFP, referring to the beginning of the civil war. Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin and how did he go from being a prisoner to calling for a military uprising in Russia

00:48Ukraine’s military said on Friday it was “observing” a fight between the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner and the Russian high command, after the former accused the latter of deadly strikes on its bases, AFP reported.

“We are watching,” the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine wrote on Twitter, and the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, believes that warring Russian factions have begun to “devour each other for power and money.”

00:40Sergey Surovikin, whom the Russian press nicknamed “General Armageddon”, calls on the “Wagnerians” to “obey the Supreme.”

“We are of the same blood, we are warriors, the enemy is waiting for the aggravation of the internal political situation in the country.”

00:35 Image of mobile armored vehicles near the State Duma in Moscow:

00:28The Federal Security Service (FSB) calls on the fighters of the “Wagner” PMK not to carry out the criminal and treasonous orders of Prigozhin, but to take measures for his arrest, reports Ifax, writes Reuters.

According to the FSB, the comments of the leader Wagner are a call for the beginning of civil armed conflict in Russia

00:22The movement of troops in Russia, according to Nexta, which reports that the authorities in Moscow are on the alert and filters have been installed on the main road from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow.

At the same time, the Russian authorities allegedly began a search of the center of Wagner’s mercenary group in St. Petersburg.

A brief summary of recent events:

• The Russian special service opened an investigation into the leader of the “Wagner Group” Yevgeny Prigozhin, who accused the military leadership of Moscow of attacking his mercenaries. State media reported that President Vladimir Putin had been briefed on the situation.
• Russian state television interrupted its program Friday night to broadcast a defense ministry statement saying Prigozhin’s claims were untrue.
• Serhii Surovikin, whom the Russian press nicknamed “General Armageddon”, calls on the “Wagnerians” to “obey the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.” “We are of the same blood, we are warriors, the enemy is waiting for the internal political situation in the country. deteriorate”.
• The important Chongar bridge connecting the annexed Crimea and the partially occupied region of southern Ukraine, which was struck by Ukrainian forces on Thursday, is currently “no longer usable,” a Russian official said on Friday, AFP writes. At the same time, the Russians began to build a stationary pontoon under the bridge, judging by satellite images.
• Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner’s mercenary company, said Friday that the Kremlin’s arguments for invading Ukraine are based on lies concocted by his opponent, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Friday ordered the creation of a special commission to check the heads of military commissions in the regions of Ukraine, Reuters reports. Zelensky also said there would be personnel changes following his investigation into the condition of the bomb shelters after three people were left on the streets after the bomb shelter was blocked during the Russian attack.
• The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces confirmed for the first time that the main forces of the counteroffensive have not yet engaged Russia, and General Oleksandr Syrsky warned the Kremlin that he is “hunting” for a deadly weakness in its defense lines.
• The Russian army is withdrawing in several areas in the south and east of Ukraine, Yevgeny Prygozhin, head of the mercenary group of the “Wagner” PMC, said on Friday, which contradicts the Kremlin’s claims about the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
• Ukrainian armed forces have stopped the Russian offensive on the eastern cities of Kupyansk and Lyman and are advancing south, a senior Ukrainian Defense Ministry official said on Friday, Reuters reports.

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Friday’s events regarding Russian aggression were broadcast LIVE on HotNews.ro