Wagner mercenaries say they control key Russian city as

Fighting has now broken out between Wagner mercenaries and the Russian military in varanesh with Wagner claiming a Russian helicopter opened fire on a convoy of their vehicles making their way towards the capital Moscow Vladimir Putin says Russia is facing a battle for its future in the face of an armed Mutiny in the country the president has accused the group of treason and assigned a law permitting 30-day detentions for breaking martial law in places where it's been imposed so let's just take you through the latest developments now the head of the Wagner mercenary group yevgeni pregogen says his Fighters have taken over rostov tanks were seen in the city earlier which is the military command center for the Russian army in Ukraine then Wagner troops also appeared to be taking action in the varanesh region which lies halfway between rostov and Moscow over 600 kilometers North on the M4 highway there are reports of fighting between Russian troops and Wagner mercenaries in and around the city of varanesh and an arms dump in bronish has been set on fire now this is a key City on route to Moscow just eight hours from the capital where security has been tightened armed vehicles have also beseen been seen patrolling the streets so let's show you the latest pictures we have they've been verified by BBC verify and in the distance you can see a military helicopter in varanesh flying over an urban area and a blast to the right of the shot which we believe to be an oil Depot in the area our security correspondent Gordon Carrera has this a mutiny perhaps even the start of a civil war mercenaries belonging to the Wagner group who'd been fighting for Russia in Ukraine now appear to have seized control of the Russian city of rosto vondon residents have been told to stay indoors one took these pictures which have been confirmed by BBC verify posted a video said to be from this morning in which she appears outside the city's military headquarters saying he's also taken control of the local Airfield and in another video he appears arguing with two officials one the deputy defense minister he demands to see the heads of the Russian military with whom he's been engaging in a bitter public Feud claiming they are responsible for the death of many of his men in Ukraine the guy's dying because you're pushing them into a meat grinder without Munitions without any thoughts without any plan you are just aging clowns once again we came here and we want to see the chief of staff and the Russian defense minister until they come here we will stay we will block the city of rostov and go towards Moscow and in Moscow today signs of how seriously this was being taken with new anti-terrorist measures being introduced in the capital this morning a visibly angry Vladimir Putin was forced to appear on TV to speak to the Russian people any internal mutiny is a serious threat to our state our nation it is a blow to Russia to our people and our actions to defend the states against the threat will be harsh so who is evgeny pagosian after time in jail he went into the catering business catching the eye of Russia's leader that led to him becoming known as Putin's Chef lucrative military contracts followed linked to interference in America's 2016 election he became best known as head of the Wagner group a private military force acting for the Russian state oh it fought in Africa and Syria it grew increasingly prominent and important Following last year's invasion of Ukraine pragoshin recruited prisoners to fight in the war but he became increasingly angry with moscow's military leadership saying they were using his men as cannon fodder and failing to provide ammunition and support foreign in recent weeks his video messages became increasingly angry there was a sense that a crisis was coming to a head pictures verified by the BBC show smoke Rising close to the city of veronese BBC News Russian sources say Wagner Fighters have taken control of military facilities in that city which lies on the road to Moscow with Wagner forces in control of rostov and apparently on the move there have been reports unconfirmed of airstrikes for the moment it's unclear how this crisis will be resolved and with what level of violence Gordon Carrera BBC News [Music] okay the latest development in this growing escalation of fighting between essentially Russian forces and Wagner Fighters is that Wagner Fighters have been promised an amnesty if they lay down their weapons but they need to act fast now this is being reported via the Reuters news agency and picked up following a comment that was made by a lawmaker to tasks now we've been saying tasks quite a bit haven't we so who is Tas they are actually the Russian news agency and it's a Russian state-owned news agency another development is that we understand that turkey's president erdogan has spoken with Russia's Vladimir Putin by phone and emphasizing the need to act with common sense again via the Reuters news agency and from a statement from the Turkish presidency so those are the latest developments and we'll bring you more as and when we get it well our correspondent Andrew Harding is in the donbass region of Ukraine and he told us about the reaction there to the developments in Russia this morning we were out early on the front lines near Baku this city that's been so pulverized by the Russians who've now occupied the city the ukrainians though now launching Fierce counter-attacks and we were just back from those front lines with as you say some Ukrainian Medics everybody had heard the news from Russia everybody who's not directly involved in the fighting has been consuming devouring this news of the chaos in their enemy camp and many people delighted but I'd also say quite cautious one young Russian medic said if there's a revolution in Moscow I'm going to get very drunk said that with a big grin but his boss then turned around and said look it's way too early for that I think we need to be very cautious us yes this could help us but the fact is there's Furious fighting going on the ukrainians taking heavy casualties we saw two and heard of seven more casualties just in the hour or two we were there Russians also taking heavy casualties now clearly this has happened at an opportune time for the ukrainians they've just started this big counter-offensive but they haven't got anywhere close to Top Gear and if their enemy is divided and presumably quite demoralized by what's going on back in Russia then that can only help the ukrainians but I also heard expressions of concern real concern from people who say look Eve the Kremlin is cornered or divided then who knows what could happen perhaps they could try and Trigger some kind of nuclear accident in Ukrainian occupied territory there's a power plant there and so on so there's a sense that anything could happen that same jittery feeling I suppose many Russians are also feeling right now and that was Andrew Hardy joining me now is the former British ambassador to Russia sir Tony Brenton thank you for joining us here on the program so what's the current situation between pragosan and Putin well they were very close of course a long time ago but over the last few weeks pregosian has become increasingly demented he's already always been hostile of the performance of Russian Armed Forces you become louder more aggressive could she come pretty close to directly criticizing Putin himself and in a way this crisis has been visibly coming for the last two or three weeks the astonishing thing about it is that Putin Ultra seen it coming and ought to have been able to see it off some time ago and this has chose a deep lack of attention to the threats that surround his regime that he failed to do that and he's now in the current crisis and what are the chances that he will take power in Russia the progression progression will take power yes I think very low I mean all the normal people are out now saying this is doing I know people have been predicting Putin's Doom for the last 10 years push it I mean production has perhaps 10 000 troops good troops Apple Harden all that but it's not a competitor against the Russian Armed Forces if they turn the full mass of their force on him Putin has rhetoric on his side he's described as a traitor and there's a mutineer he gives very strong language in Russia a country which is very conscious of how it has to hang together when it is externally threatened or an external challenge as it sees itself as being at the moment with the west and with Ukraine so the odds have to be on the side of Putin to see this off but what it says about his judgment and about the strength of this regime going forward has to be negative um and what does this mean for the war in Ukraine well I mean the ukrainians have been saying we knew their scientific flush with that that was predictable I suspect they will be looking for ways to take advantage of the situation an effective attack somewhere because it's worth noting that the only bit of the Russian side of the war which has succeeded in anything in the last eight months has been pregosian and his his Wagner group um so they'll be looking for ways of making Putin look even weaker diminishing the support which is confidence of getting within Russia and hopefully pushing Russia in the direction of Australian Putin out so how crucial do you think the next few hours will be very I'm absolutely crucial if it happens I mean for the moment it looks as if regurgian's forces are proceeding at the M4 Highway towards Moscow if they gather support in the course of that Advance then put in maybe in deep trouble now I suspect as I say that they worked the majority of the forces in Russia Russian military leadership for example their survival depends upon who's in surviving so I suspect that the system will rally and will deal quite brutally and effectively proportion but there's no guarantee of that and if you watch Putin in his five-minute broadcast in reaction to what's happened he is obviously very angry with all the rather also rather nervous about the way things have gone so Tony um how do you go from a hot dog Trader to Leading a military force I wonder if you could give us some context no well I can a bit I mean brigosian was ran a restaurant in um in Saint Petersburg at the time that Putin was Deputy Governor there right at the beginning in his Municipal career they got together they got to know each other suppose criminal links all of that pregosian is in some ways Putin's kind of guy tough is macho he's the sort of person who put in instinctively supports and adheres to and the reason we've got to this most recently is that Russian armed forces have frankly performed appallingly in dealing with the ukrainians and progression has been there as a constant goad and threat and demonstrator that the Russian Armed Forces Russia should be doing better which is why virgin has lasted for as long as he has is now plainly stepped over the boundaries and we'll see what the effect of that is but worrying for Putin is that pregosian has a lot of popular resonance within Russia is a sort of top tough guy there's a lot of Russian nationalists a lot of them so-called defense bloggers and so on sort of tough guy whom this nationalist strand in Russian opinion wants to see directing a much tougher Russian approach to the war in Ukraine um just very quickly strategically obviously we're talking about that M4 Corridor and how how much do you think that is going to play a key role in Wagner's Advance on Moscow in terms of the supply lines and the the military Arsenal I mean where does Wagner get their weapons from we're not going to have faces I'm like I don't know in detail what they've got they've got bases in a lot of places Russia as I said they've got a lot of popular sympathy they've got well-armed battle-hardened troops and I assume that setting this Advance going and starting off in rostov and then in baronage which is already halfway to Moscow from rostov they are expecting other parts of the Russian military and security apparatus to gather around and support them against what pregosian describes as the failed Nursery leadership of Russia in Moscow and the key thing over the next few hours is whether there is any resonance or there is any positive response to that call okay that's Tony Brenton thank you so much for your Insight thank you just to bring you the latest development and it's been reported um via the AFP news agency that the governor of the Kaluga region which is just south of the capital Moscow has said that travel restrictions have been imposed we know that some residents in towns along that M4 have been told to stay indoors well let us look more about at how things are being viewed in Moscow our Russia editor is there for us and he gave us the detail of the timeline of events over the last 24 hours 16 months ago today Vladimir Putin addressed the Russian Nation to announce the start of his so-called special military operation the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and at the time he looked supremely confident well 16 months on once again President Putin has addressed the Russian people in very different circumstances with Russia facing an armed mutiny and I think for Vladimir Putin was important to go on television to try to show the Russian people that he is in charge in control of the situation his address was full of references to treachery to betrayal he described what Wagner is doing as a stab in the back the country and the Russian people now that is something that yugini prig ocean the Wagner Chief disagrees with uh Wagner Fighters came across from Ukraine into Russia they entered rostov the big Regional capital in southern Russia and had taken control of military sites there and some Reports say they are now moving North Mr pregosian says his beef is with the Russian military not so much with the Kremlin and it looks like he wants to topple the Russian military leadership uh Steve Rosenberg there next we're going to cross to our Newsroom and speak to Nikki Sheila who's going to tell us a little bit more about the geography of these latest developments hi Nikki hello yeah geography very key in all of what we've been talking about over the last couple of hours and we've been mentioning a lot of cities so I thought it'd be a good idea to show you exactly where they are so here we have a map of Ukraine and you can see Kiev marks and we've also got Russia with Moscow and down here is Crimea I want to draw your attention to this red area now this is the area of Ukraine that we think is under Russian military control until yesterday that could have included the Wagner operation as well because of course they have been fighting with Russian forces in this area with the Ukraine counter-offensive that's been going on now the other city that we've mentioned a lot today is rostov on Dawn now that is about a hundred kilometers from the border with Ukraine now what we think has happened is that the Wagner mercenary group have moved into rostov on Don they say they have taken control of it now it is a key City the reason it is the headquarters of the Russian Southern military command it's also used by the Army as a bit of a staging post for things like Fuel and ammunition and also a number of troops are kept there before they go into Ukraine so the Wagner groups say they have control of that they have also moved to the city of iranesh and they did that going up this M4 Motorway now this it normally would be about an eight hour drive now at the moment we are getting unconfirmed reports of fighting inveranish between Russian forces and Wagner mercenaries we also are sources within BBC News Russia say that they the Wagner group may have taken over some key military sites there you've also seen earlier those pictures of the oil Depot on fire now why is this city important to the Wagner Group Well if you look rostov on Dawn and Moscow up here this is halfway between the two cities and it is understood from the UK Ministry of defense that the ultimate aim of the Wagner group could be to make it to Moscow which they would do maybe up this M4 Corridor now also there is a city that we have just come into Le petsk now the governor of lepec says that there are Wagner forces in that region at the moment and certainly our BBC verify team have verified pictures of a Wagner Convoy in that region and I just want to show you as well the Google Maps traffic because this has given us a really interesting Insight all of these red dots from veroneska here are traffic blocks and I've been monitoring this over the last couple of hours and these blocks are going further and further up the M4 Corridor than they were so that could mean that we really are pushing into Moscow territory pets is about 300 kilometers from Moscow so if that is the ultimate aim of the Wagner group they are currently in this region at the moment the Questa okay thank you and Nikki just to add very quickly if you could just keep that map up for us sir just for a short time remind our viewers of our latest breaking news latest development and this is coming from the gov the governor of the Kaluga region who said that travel restrictions have been imposed now this is a region which is south of Moscow which is the capital just at the top of your screen there yeah and you're going to be in this area I think and between near the lapetsk that sort of areas where we're talking and and I understand that the the city of Kaluga is only 150 kilometers southwest of Moscow which is 93 Miles as well we'll have more on that and I know you will in the next hour Nikki thank you very much indeed thank you now the British government's emergency Cobra committee will meet to discuss the situation in Russia the Prime Minister Rishi sunak has been asked about it by the BBC's Laura coonsberg prime minister what's happening in Russia is clearly very significant do you think this might be a coup against Vladimir Putin well we've been monitoring for a while now the potentially destabling impacts of Russia's illegal war in Ukraine we're keeping a close eye on the situation as it's evolving on the ground as we speak we're in touch with our allies and in fact I'll be speaking to some of them later today but the most important thing I'd say is for all parties to be responsible and to protect civilians and that's about as much as I can say at this moment the ministry of Defense though has said online this morning this is the most significant threat to the Russian States in recent times is is that right how do you see it as I said we've been monitoring for a while the potential of Russia's and illegal invasion in Ukraine to be destabilizing and that's obviously this you've seen the situation as it's developing we're keeping a close eye on that we're in touch with our allies as the situation evolves I'll be speaking to some of them later today and the most important thing is for all parties to behave responsibility responsibly and to protect civilian lives when people look at this I mean is it good news or bad news that Vladimir Putin's been challenged again it's an evolving situation and I think the right thing at this juncture is for us to make sure that we're on top of it that we're in touch with our allies which we are and I'll be speaking to them later today and that we call on all parties to exercise responsibility and to protect civilian lives I think that's the most important thing for us in the UK to be doing at this juncture have you heard from president zielinski about what's going on here as I said I'm in touch with our allies I'll be speaking to some of them later today as you would expect us to be coordinated on on a situation like this but it is evolving as we speak and just last question if there are British citizens remaining in Moscow or in Russia for example we know a lot of people obviously have left but do you have advice for British citizens in Russia at the moment while this is going on we've had long-standing travel advice against travel to Russia that's on the foreign office website people should regularly check that but it has been long we've had long-standing advice advising against travel to Russia for all the obvious reasons but people should keep checking the foreign office website for updates okay just to bring you another reaction here International reaction the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that we are in contact with our allies and will continue to monitor the situation closely saying the saying that the incident Response Group will meet on Saturday to discuss the latest developments in Russia so reaction there from the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau now our British viewers can hear more of the interview with the British prime minister Rishi sunak on Sunday with Laura coonsberg okay let's move on now to get more analysis as we've heard president zielinski has been reacting to events in Russia saying that Russia's weakness is obvious and that the longer Russia keeps troops in Ukraine the more chaos it will see our correspondent to Azana vespiatric is in Kiev and she told us more about the reaction there first of all what I sorry in case today in the morning almost everybody was monitoring following the news from Russia uh for many many ukrainians uh this scenario which is now happening unfolding in Russia was seen as realistic it's absolutely plausible so now people do understand that these developments on the Russian ground might have very high impact on the war on the situation on the front line and I have to acknowledge that there is a kind of hope that even potentially hypothetically they might mean the quick end to this womb one of the first responses reactions to what was called by the Russian president Mutiny in Russia came from the secretary of the Ukrainian National Security Council Alexey Daniel of his one of those persons from the Ukrainian government who used to command first one first on such things on the first developments during this war and he said that he thinks that it's the beginning of the self-destruction of Russia that these situation might help Ukraine to regain uh its territories and come back to the borders of 1991 it means the regain of all territories which are occupied by Russia now including the Crimea uh and uh in general um he provided very optimistic view of uh these um developments uh in Russia and the Ukrainian president uh voladimir zielinsky um but wait he underlined highlighted it's the full-scale weakness of Russia so he uh said that um the longer Russia continues uh war on Ukraine on the Ukrainian ground the more chaos and wolves it gets on its own ground that was our correspondence Anna bsp check with the latest in Russia this is BBC News hello this is BBC News and I'm the question so let us continue our coverage of the latest developments in Russia and analyze who yevgeny pregosian is now he's the leader of the Wagner group BBC verifies Olga Robinson has this profile of the man who leads the Wagner group his first exposure to Russia's Elite was as a caterer which earned him the nickname Putin's Chef he's also suspected of using online trolls to meddle in the 2016 U.S election and pregotin provided mercenaries in places like Syria serving the kremlin's interests but offering Putin plausible deniability something which continued when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine when progress stalled the Wagner group was brought into Health transforming precaution into a public figure in one of the key voices in support of the war but is Wagner's death toll sword his relationship with Russia's military worsened here he is in May surrounded by bodies of his Fighters swearing at Russia's defense minister and the head of armed forces there's evidence that this approach is appealing to Hardline supporters of the war and the recent poll asking Russians which public figures they trust most features pre-gotten in the top five for the first time whether this rise in popularity bothers Putin is impossible to say some experts think the inviting may be playing into Putin's hands as he likes controlled competition dividend rule he divides the Army into two powerful centers of power so you have the regular army and then you have preguism it's just Putin's typical Styles what he does and so it remains unclear where this spot between precaution and the defense ministry will end and how it will affect the war for now he carries on Olga Robinson BBC News