From BZ/dpa
According to the authorities, the Wagner mercenary unit has now reached the Lipetsk region on its way from Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia to Moscow during its armed uprising against the Russian leadership.
“Residents are strongly advised not to leave their homes and refrain from using public transport,” the governor of the region, Igor Artamonov, wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday. But the situation is under control. Lipetsk is about halfway between Rostov and Moscow – around 400 kilometers from the Russian capital.
Unlike the Voronezh region further south, there were no reports of fighting. Videos showed trucks tipped into the ditch. Apparently they had been set up in a hurry as a roadblock to stop the column of the Wagner mercenary unit.
Other videos showed how roads were torn up and deep trenches dug. This, too, was apparently intended to stop the mercenaries. The Lipetsk region’s crisis team later stated that some roads had been damaged in order to slow down the advance of Wagner’s troops.
A tank of the “Wagner” mercenaries in Rostov-on-Don
Photo: picture alliance/dpa/TASS | Eric Romanenko
The power struggle between mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozchin and the Russian leadership escalated on Saturday night.
Armored personnel carriers and sandbags at Moscow Ring Road
Because of the Wagner mercenaries’ uprising and their planned advance towards the Russian capital, the authorities have set up a checkpoint on at least part of the Moscow ring road. “Security measures are being stepped up at a number of exits,” state news agency Ria Nowosti reported on Saturday. The accompanying video showed soldiers, an infantry fighting vehicle and a sandbag barrier. The clip was shot in the south-west of Moscow at an exit from the MKAD ring road.
The mayor of the Russian capital, Sergey Sobyanin, urged people to stay at home and declared Monday a day off for safety reasons.
“The anti-terrorist emergency has been declared in Moscow. The situation is difficult,” admitted Sobyanin on his Telegram channel. It is about “minimising the risks”, there could be road closures.
Negotiations with Lukashenko?
On Saturday evening the news broke that Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko (68) said he was negotiating with mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin (68) about a kind of ceasefire.
Lukashenko’s press service announced that the Belarusian ruler was in negotiations with Prigozhin “all day” with the permission of Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin (70).
The statement reads: “As a result, they agreed on the inadmissibility of a bloodbath on the territory of Russia. Yevgeny Prigozhin accepted President Alexander Lukashenko’s offer to stop the movement of Wagner’s gunmen into Russian territory and take further steps to de-escalate tensions.”
In return, Prigozhin received security guarantees for his men.