Rebellious Wagner troops have taken Rostov-on-Don, including the headquarters of the Russian Southern Military District. Rostov is a major logistics hub for the army in Ukraine. The regime deployed Rosgvardia (national guard) troops on the roads into Rostov but videos show them standing aside to let Wagner troops pass.
Wagner troops have also taken Voronezh.
Online reports have the rebels holding all the area shown in purple. There appears to be no resistance from regular army troops; only FSB (= old KGB) troops are shooting at Wagner.
The Russian air force is fighting back but they have already lost two helicopters and one jet. (Wagner forces have surface to air missiles.) (UPDATE 8:30; the fuel depot may have been struck by an anti-aircraft missile fired by Wagner.) They bombed the fuel depot in Voronezh, presumably to keep the fuel out of Wagner's hands. Progozhin has claimed that some pilots refused to attack his men, but there is no other confirmation of that.
At least a dozen private jets are said to have left Moscow without posting destinations to air traffic control.
Putin has made a touch speech, denouncing Prigozhin as a traitor. But Prigozhin was not impressed:
No one is going to confess at the request of the president, the FSB or anyone else. Because we do not want the country to continue to live in corruption, deception and bureaucracy.
The government in Moscow has declared an anti-terror regime, which amounts to martial law. They are blocking roads into Moscow with buses and cement trucks.
Statements of support for Prigozhin are starting to come out from other Russian commanders.
This is a real coup, and it may lead to a real Russian civil war.
Tendarr, retired German officer on Twitter:
I have said this for years: Putin's last sacrifice will be his own people. This is the final terror. . . . You will remember this day.
Zelensky:
Everyone who chooses the path of evil destroys himself. Who sends troops to destroy the life of another country and cannot stop them from fleeing and betraying when that life resists. Who terrorizes with missiles is humiliated when they are shot down. Who despises people and throws hundreds of thousands into the war, will eventually have to barricade himself in Moscow from those whom he himself armed. For a long time, Russia used propaganda to mask its weakness and the stupidity of its government, but now there is so much chaos that no lie can hide it. And all this stems from one person, who again and again frightens people by invoking the year 1917. This is the result. Russia's weakness is obvious. Full-scale weakness. And the longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain, and problems it will have for itself.
Russian news anchor Solovyov:
Every kingdom, if it is torn apart by strife, will be desolate, and every city or house where there is strife will not stand. (and more here)
Machiavelli:
Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is.
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