Moscow accuses Wagner head of mutiny as Ukraine prepares main thrust in counteroffensive

By Andrew Osborn and Kevin Liffey

MOSCOW/KYIV (Reuters) -Russia accused mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin of launching an armed mutiny after he vowed to punish military leaders whom he accused of killing 2,000 of his fighters, raising the stakes in a growing confrontation with top officials.

As a long-running standoff between Prigozhin and the military top brass appeared to come to a head, Russia’s FSB security service opened a criminal case against him, TASS news agency said, and it called on fighters from his Wagner private military company to ignore his orders and arrest him.

Kyiv, meanwhile, said the major thrust in its counteroffensive against Moscow’s invasion had yet to be launched. “The main blow is still to come,” Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian television.

A top Ukrainian general reported “tangible successes” in advances in the south – one of two main theatres of operations, along with eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops there have been fighting alongside mercenaries from Prigozhin’s Wagner force.

Security was stepped up on Friday night at government buildings, transport facilities and other key locations in Moscow, TASS reported, citing a source at a security service.

‘OBEY PRESIDENT,’ GENERAL SAYS

The deputy commander of Russia’s Ukraine campaign, General Sergei Surovikin, told Wagner fighters to obey Putin, accept Moscow’s commanders and return to their bases. He said political deterioration would play into the hands of Russia’s enemies.

“I urge you to stop,” Surovikin said in a video posted on Telegram, his right hand resting on a rifle.

The standoff, many of the details of which remained unclear, looked like the biggest domestic crisis Russian President Vladimir Putin has faced since he sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February last year.

Prigozhin, a one-time Putin ally, in recent months has carried out an increasingly bitter feud with Moscow. Earlier on Friday, he appeared to cross a new line, saying the Kremlin’s rationale for invading Ukraine, which it calls a “special military operation,” was based on lies by the army’s top brass.

Wagner led Russia’s capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut last month, Russia’s biggest victory in 10 months, and Prigozhin has used its battlefield success to criticise the leadership of the defense ministry with seeming impunity – until now.

For months, he has openly accused Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, of rank incompetence.

In a series of late evening audio messages on his official Telegram channel, Prigozhin said:

“The minister of defence has ordered 2,000 bodies that are being stored to be hidden so as not to show the losses.”

He added: “Those who destroyed our lads, who destroyed the lives of many tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, will be punished. I ask that no one offer resistance …

“There are 25,000 of us and we are going to figure out why chaos is happening in the country.”

Prigozhin said his actions were “not a military coup”, but added: “Most of the military support us fervently.”

UKRAINE SAYS MAJOR THRUST AHEAD

On the ground in Ukraine, at least three people were killed in Russian attacks on Friday, including two who died after a trolleybus company came under fire in the city of Kherson, regional officials said.

Addressing the pace of the Ukrainian advances, several senior officials on Friday sent the clearest signal so far that the main part of the counteroffensive has not yet begun.

“I want to say that our main force has not been engaged in fighting yet, and we are now searching, probing for weak places in the enemy defences. Everything is still ahead,” the Guardian quoted Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, as saying in an interview with the British newspaper.

General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukraine’s “Tavria,” or southern front, wrote on Telegram: “There have been tangible successes of the Defence Forces and in advances in the Tavria sector.”

Tarnavskyi said Russian forces had lost hundreds of men and 51 military vehicles in the past 24 hours, including three tanks and 14 armoured personnel carriers.

Although the advances Ukraine has reported this month are its first substantial gains on the battlefield for seven months, Ukrainian forces have yet to push to the main defensive lines that Russia has had months to prepare.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said there would be personnel changes following an inquest into the state of Ukraine’s bomb shelters after three people were locked out on the street and killed during an air raid earlier this month.

In an ongoing campaign against corruption seen as crucial to Kyiv’s ambitions to join the European Union, Zelenskiy separately announced an audit of heads of military draft offices across the country. The decision follows Ukrainian media reports of corruption allegations against the head of a draft office.

Ukraine has also been pressing for an invitation to join the NATO military alliance, and Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Friday he expected Kyiv to receive a clear signal and “formula” for it to become a member when the military alliance holds a summit in Vilnius next month.

This weekend, Ukraine is due to host an informal gathering in Copenhagen of officials from a range of countries, possibly including some that have refused to condemn Russia’s invasion, a U.S. official said. India, South Africa and Brazil were among those invited. The talks will “discuss the basic principles of peace,” the official said.

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