On June 23, 2023, the leader of the Wagner Group or Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin threatened an armed rebellion against Russian leadership, following what he believed to be a deliberate shelling of his forces by Russian troops. One day later, Wagner took control of the Russian city, Rostov-on-Don, near the Ukrainian border with an army of 25,000. Prigozhin threatened to move forward to Moscow, calling for the removal of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu from office.
Wagner is a private military company consisting of mercenaries, funded by the Russian government. The group has been identified by the US government as a transnational criminal organization. Putin declared that the actions of his longtime ally are considered treason and that necessary measures are being taken,
The Wagner leader continued to verbally attack Russia’s military and political leadership, claiming that the justification for the invasion of Ukraine, that it was a preventative measure against an attack from Ukraine, is a lie.
Prigozhin later halted the march on Moscow about 200 kilometers away from his destination, stating that he wanted to avoid bloodshed. Putin and Prigozhin entered an agreement, relocating the Wagner chief to Belarus. Following the rebellion, Prigozhin released a statement saying that the purpose of the march was not to overthrow power, but rather to address an injustice.
