President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky commented on the Wagner PMC rebellion, he wrote part of the message in Russian. He noted that the Russian leadership does not control the situation and plunged the country into chaos.
“Today is the day when there should definitely not be silence. And you definitely need leadership. Today the world has seen that the masters of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Just complete chaos. A complete lack of predictability. And this is on Russian territory, which is stuffed with weapons.
The world should not be afraid. We know what protects us. Only our unity. Ukraine will definitely be able to protect Europe from any Russian forces – no matter who commands them. We will protect. The security of the eastern flank of Europe rests only on our defense. And that is why every manifestation of support for our defense is support for your defense, all in the free world.
I will say in Russian. The man from the Kremlin is obviously very afraid and is probably hiding somewhere, not showing up. I am sure that he is no longer in Moscow. He calls somewhere, begs for something there … He knows what he is afraid of, because he himself created this threat. All the evil, all the losses, all the hatred – he spreads it himself. And the longer he can run between his bunkers, the more you will lose … everyone who is connected with Russia.
What will we Ukrainians do? We will defend our country. We will defend our freedom. We will not be silent and we will not be inactive. We know how to win – and it will be. Our victory in this war will be unequivocal.
And what will you do?
The longer your troops stay on Ukrainian soil, the more destruction they will bring to Russia later. The longer this person stays in the Kremlin, the more catastrophes there will be.”
On the evening of June 23, the head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced that his mercenaries were going to remove the military leadership of the Russian Federation. His military formations went to Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh, then to go to Moscow. The column of PMC Wagner, moving from the south of Russia to Moscow, covered more than 700 km in half of Saturday, making its way from Rostov-on-Don to the village of Krasnoye, Lipetsk region. From there to Moscow remains about 400 km.