- By Anastasia Lotareva
- BBC Russian
59 minutes ago
Image source: Getty Images
picture description,
Wagner fighters on the streets of Rostov-on-Don during the mutiny
A mercenary involved in the attempted mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin said he and his comrades had “no idea” what was happening.
Within just 24 hours, the leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged an uprising and sent troops to the southern city of Rostov and then on towards Moscow.
Wagner fighters rarely speak to the media, but BBC Russian spoke to a sub-commander who was in the middle of the action.
Gleb – not his real name – had previously been involved in fighting for the symbolic town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. When the mutiny began, he rested with his unit in a barracks in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region.
Early in the morning of June 23, they received a call to join a column of Wagner fighters leaving Ukraine. The order came from a Wagner commander whom Gleb is reluctant to name for security reasons, but who acted on orders from Prigozhin and the Wagner Command Council.
“It’s a full operation,” he was told. “We’re forming a column, let’s undress.”
Gleb says no one was told where the column was headed, but he was surprised to see them moving away from the front line.
When the Wagner fighters crossed the Russian border into the Rostov region, they met no resistance, he says.
“I didn’t see any border guards,” he recalls. “But the traffic police greeted us on the way.”
Image source, Wagner handout
picture description,
Wagner says this photo shows Russian border guards at a checkpoint laying down their guns
Channels of the messaging app Telegram closely associated with Wagner later claimed that border guards at the Bugayevka checkpoint laid down their arms when the Wagner fighters arrived.
These channels shared a photo allegedly from the crime scene showing two dozen unarmed people in camouflage clothing.
Approaching Rostov-on-Don, the militants received orders to surround all law enforcement buildings in the city and seize the military airport. Gleb’s unit was ordered to take control of the regional offices of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
As they approached the building, it seemed completely locked and empty. They flew a drone over them to look for signs of life.
Finally, after half an hour, a door opened and two people came out onto the street.
“They said, ‘Guys, let’s make a deal,'” Gleb says. “I said, ‘What’s a deal on? This is our city’.”
“So we just agreed that we’d leave each other alone. From time to time they came out to smoke.”
Rostov journalists reported a similar situation at many government buildings in and around the city. The Wagner fighters would first drone over them and then surround them. No one was allowed to leave, but delivery couriers were allowed in with groceries.
While all this was happening, Wagner leader Prigozhin met with Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister, Lieutenant General Yunus-bek Yevkurov, and Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev at the headquarters of the Russian Army’s Southern Military District.
Prigozhin demanded the extradition of Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.
Image source: Wagner Handout
picture description,
A screenshot from a video showing Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin giving a speech in Rostov-on-Don on June 24
At the same time that Prigozhin was in session, another column of Wagner fighters was on the move.
Gleb confirms media reports that this column was led by Wagner founder Dmitry Utkin, a former special forces officer who is rarely seen in public.
This column was on the main road towards Voronezh and was apparently on its way to Moscow, he says.
So, did Gleb know the plan – what Prigozhin was up to or was up to?
He curses as he bluntly says he had no idea. “We found out what happened from Telegram, as did you.”
During the day, images of what was happening in Rostov went around the world. People were surprised to see local residents and even local journalists who appeared to be smiling and chatting to some of the normally taciturn Wagner fighters who were occupying their town.
“It was the ex-prisoners,” says Gleb, referring to the many prisoners or convicts who were conscripted by Wagner last year. “Nobody told them not to do it, nobody cares about them.”
For established fighters like Gleb, hired long before the war in Ukraine, the rules are much clearer to understand.
He told the BBC that they had been told by High Command back in the spring that anyone who spoke to the media would be “cancelled,” meaning killed. Several former Wagner fighters have told us the same thing.
On the evening of June 24, Gleb was contacted by one of his superiors and told without any explanation that he and his unit should now return to the Luhansk base.
On the way back to the barracks, they followed the news via Telegram.
They read that criminal proceedings had been initiated and then dropped against Prigozhin and that he was to move to Belarus.
They then read that Wagner fighters would not be held accountable for their roles in the mutiny because of their “combat merits,” according to President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
For Gleb and his unit, their future is now unclear. They were told to remain in their barracks in Luhansk and await further orders.
Their hosts, authorities of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, pro-Russian separatist militants in eastern Ukraine, are interested in learning more about their future plans and the future of their equipment and ammunition, he says.
When asked why he isn’t leaving Wagner, Gleb replies simply: “My contract hasn’t expired yet.”