ARMED REVOLT THREATENS PUTIN’S RULE WITH CIVIL WAR

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin warned Saturday that treason against his rule threatens Russia with civil war, as Moscow’s military launched an operation to tackle a revolt by the Wagner mercenary group.

The rapidly escalating events mark the most serious challenge yet to the Kremlin chief’s long rule, and Russia’s most serious security crisis since the strongman came to power in late 1999.

Wag - ner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, once a close Putin ally, said his troops had taken control of the military command centre and bases in the southern city of Rostovon-Don, the nerve centre of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, and vowed to topple Moscow’s top military leaders.

Further north, on Wagner’s possible route towards Moscow, the governor of Russia’s Voronezh region said the armed forces had launched a “counter-terrorist operation” to suppress the revolt. A fuel depot in Voronezh city was on fire, he said.

The FSB security service accused Prigozhin of attempting to launch a “civil conflict” and urged Wagner fighters to detain him.

Responding to the challenge in a televised address, Putin accused Prigozhin – whose private army provided shock troops for Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine – of a “stab in the back” that posed a threat to Russia’s very survival.

“Any internal turmoil is a deadly threat to our statehood and to us as a nation. This is a blow to Russia and to our people,” Putin said.

“This battle, when the fate of our people is being decided, requires the unification of all forces.”

“Extravagant ambitions and personal interests

World Closely Follows Wagner Mutiny In Russia

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WORLD/

FORMER ALLIES. (Left) This video grab taken from a handout footage posted on June 24, 2023 on the Telegram account of the press service of Concord shows the chief of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, speaking inside the headquarters of the southern military district in the city of Rostov-on-Don. (Right) This screen grab taken from a footage released by the Russian presidential press office on June 24, 2023 shows Russian President Vladimir Putin making a statement in Moscow.

TELEGRAM / @concordgroup_ official / AFP led to treason,” Putin said, referring to Prigozhin, who built his powerbase as a catering contractor to the Kremlin and now runs a private military force.

“All those who consciously stood on the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed rebellion, stood on the path of blackmail and terrorist methods, will suffer inevitable punishment, before the law and before our people,” Putin vowed.

The Russian president’s speech came shortly after Prigozhin posted a message of his own, apparently filmed in Rostov-on-Don, accusing the Russian military leadership of betrayal and failure in the ongoing battle against Ukrainian forces.

“A huge amount of territory is lost. Soldiers have been killed, three, four times more than what it says in documents shown to the top,” he said, accusing commanders of hiding the true scale of Russian losses in Ukraine from the Kremlin.

AFP

9 WOUNDED AS TROOPERS, ARMED GROUP CLASH IN SULU

NINE were wounded when a gunfight ensued between government troops and members of a suspected private armed group allegedly maintained by a former vice mayor in Maimbung, Sulu on Saturday morning.

The Area Police CommandWestern Mindanao (APC-WM) said the firefight broke out around 7 a.m. in Barangay Bualo Lipid, wounding eight government troopers and a civilian.

The APC-WM did not identify the wounded troopers, except that four of them belong to the Provincial Mobile Force Company, two from the Special Action Force, and one from the Army’s 41st Infantry Battalion.

Reports said the troops were about to serve search and arrest warrants against former Maimbung Vice Mayor Pando Mudjasan, who is also a Moro National Liberation Front leader, when the firefight began.

The Mudjasan group opened fire at the approaching authorities, prompting the latter to return fire.

A stray bullet injured a civilian, whose identity was not immediately known.