Entering the war on the 487th day, these are the main developments.
This is the situation as it happened on Sunday, June 25, 2023.
Wagner mutiny
- Russia plunged into crisis after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the 62-year-old head of the mercenary Wagner group, started an armed mutiny. Prigozhin has become increasingly critical of Russia’s defense chiefs in recent months, posting his rants on his Telegram channel.
- Prigozhin said he controlled the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don near the border with Ukraine. His troops began moving north along the 1,100km (680-mile) highway to Moscow, the capital of Russia.
- A “counterterrorism state of emergency was declared in Moscow and the southwestern region of Voronezh as Wagner’s troops advanced. Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said “anti-terror” measures had been stepped up in the Russian capital and several armored personnel carriers were seen on the streets.
- In an emergency televised address to the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the mutiny as “treason”. He promised to take “decisive action” against anyone who takes up arms against the Russian military. Prigozhin, sometimes known as “Putin’s chef”, met the Russian leader in St Petersburg in the 1990s when Putin was deputy mayor and Prigozhin had a restaurant business.
- Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said his forces were ready to help put down the mutiny, and called Prigozhin’s behavior “a knife in the back”.
- As the crisis unfolded, Putin spoke by phone with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, and Kazakhstan President Kassym Jomart-Tokayev, according to Russia’s state news agency. TASS.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had also spoken with Putin and that Turkey was ready to help find a “peaceful resolution” to the rebellion.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Wagner move showed Russia’s weakness, and that the longer Moscow continued its war in Ukraine, the more chaos it would invite back home. “Russia’s weakness is obvious. Total weakness,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter.
- US President Joe Biden discussed the situation in Russia with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, according to the White House. They also confirmed their “unwavering support for Ukraine”.
- Russian military helicopters fired on a Wagner convoy of troop carriers and at least one tank on a low-mounted truck advancing on the city of Voronezh.
- Governor Igor Artamonov said Wagner mercenaries were “operating” in the Lipetsk region about 400km (250 miles) south of Moscow, and urged residents to stay at home.
- Russian media reported that several helicopters and a military communications plane were shot down by Wagner’s troops during the brief uprising. The Kremlin did not respond to questions on the losses, referring questions to the defense ministry.
- On Saturday, after the intervention of Belarusian President Lukashenko, Prigozhin ordered his fighters to turn around and return to their bases. Mercenary forces are advancing within 200km (125 miles) of Moscow, he said. Wagner’s troops were also seen leaving Rostov.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Prigozhin would move to Belarus under the Lukashenko deal, and neither the Wagner chief nor his forces would face prosecution for mutiny. Wagner’s soldiers who did not participate in the uprising will receive defense ministry contracts, he added. Peskov said the agreement reflected Putin’s desire “to avoid bloodshed and internal confrontation with unpredictable consequences”.
Fighting in Ukraine
- Russia launched a wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian targets. Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said the capital’s air defenses “detected and destroyed more than 20 missiles”, but falling debris caused a fire in a 24-storey building. , and seven people were injured and about 40 cars were damaged. . Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov said that “many houses were completely destroyed”, while in the city of Kharkiv, a gas pipeline was damaged, causing a fire but no casualties, according to regional governor Oleh Sinegubov. The Ukrainian air force also reported Russian missile attacks in the direction of the northern regions of Sumy and Poltava.
- Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that its armed forces advanced near Bakhmut, one of the centers of fighting on the eastern front, and in an area further south. “In all these areas, we have made progress,” Maliar wrote on Telegram.
- Kyiv military commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny told US chairman of the joint chiefs General Mark Milley that Ukraine’s counter-offensive against invading Russian troops “is going according to plan”.
- The Kremlin’s Peskov said Wagner’s resignation would not affect Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine.
Diplomacy
- Denmark hosted a meeting organized by Ukraine, which brought together several countries, including those that remained neutral on the Russian invasion, to discuss a path towards a “just and lasting peace” , a Western official told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.
Weapons
- Zelenskyy reiterated in Ukraine the need for Ukraine to have “all weapons necessary for defense” including F-16 fighter jets and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).
