Wagner Group captures headquarters of the Southern Military District and the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Rostov, the headquarters of Russia's base of operations for War in Ukraine

"Windows are dangerous. Also, radioactive umbrellas" - zeppo, a Lemmy Member

A merc is loyal, until the last payment clears.

How lovely

Can you explain the significance of these buildings?

Are they the head offices of those departments, or the offices that are in that city?

How powerful are these departments?

Nobody knew what was going on in 1968 czechoslovakia as well, when the russians came with the tanks. I don't really wish them any harm, but I'm glad they can experience the same confusion now. May this experience serve as a warning.

Everyone tries to control the narrative, this is completely normal. Anti-terrorist operation, peacekeeping mission, special military operation, march for X. I don't remember someone who just said "yep, we are invading X".

In this case both Prigozhin and Putin (or the establishment) are trying to control the narrative to gather support from "patriots". Saying you are making a coup sounds antigonizing, while saying you are marching for justice, because it's the government who has betrayed the people does not.

the latest resolution from NATO didnt say Russia cant nuke itself...

Launching a nuke would have to be the dumbest thing Putin could do. A huge chunk of NATO must already be salivating at the internal chaos.

I bet Polish social media is on fire right now.

I feel like this might be on behalf of Putin.

Wagner has been pretty careful to call out everyone but Putin.

Feels like setting the stage for a claim that the war was orchestrated by rogue elements in the Russian military, giving an out to tuck tail and run and move toward easing sanctions.

I feel like this might be on behalf of Putin.

Wagner has been pretty careful to call out everyone but Putin.

Feels like setting the stage for a claim that the war was orchestrated by rogue elements in the Russian military, giving an out to tuck tail and run and move toward easing sanctions.

It won't terrify Putin. It all goes according to the plan. Different forces are fighting between themselves to show who's more loyal to Putin, those who are not loyal enough are either falling out of windows or being killed on the battlefield. And those who are loyal are getting ludicrously rich. The amount of billionaires in Russia has increased fivefold during the first year of the war.

Army generals got too corrupt and too complacent since their success in Crimea in 2014, this war is a tool to put them into place and Prigozhin talks a lot so that Putin can put generals' noses into their shit to teach them a lesson or two while the public fully supports this. Prigozhin gets his piece of the pie in the process.

We need to start sending popcorn bags to Ukraine

All the Nazi's who were "expelled" out of Azov/various militias could join up with Wagner and then they all take Ukraine for themselves.

I mean Prigozin has been advertising his eventual turning against Putin for a while, but I didn't think it would happen as a full on military coup

I kinda had it on it when Prigozhin started releasing videos of him acting as a reasonable person to gain popular support.

I've also go "nuclear civil war" on my card.

My father who is Russian has been talking about Wagner turning on Russia for the past 2 months. Dogs of war. So my bingo card has been stamped.

I didn't either, but history has plenty of examples of mercenary armies turning against their employers.

Hmm not sure it's against Russia, more like against the bureaucrats that stole his ammunition

I think this is a good time to continue what they've been doing, interfering with Russian logistics and pressing forward on the front lines.

They could make an attack on Russian territory (e.g. drone strikes against airbases, oilfields, bridges, or other suitable targets), but right now might be the right time to hold off on anything that might distract Russia and Wagner from fighting with each other. Nothing unifies squabbling factions quite like a serious external threat.

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if Ukraine ops to antagonize Russia as much as they can, while leaving Wagner mostly alone. That would also be a sensible strategy.

Almost feels a little too special.

Yes and no, the war started 9 years ago

It’s just a special military coup operation, nothing more to see.

Everyone in Wagner was about to be conscripted into the regular Russian Army as the latest in an ongoing power struggle between Wagner's boss and the Russian MoD. So to avoid losing his private army, the boss has stepped up the power struggle to an attempted coup, basically.

The head of Wagner was unhappy with Russian military leaders and thought he'd take matters into his own hands as Putin was going to support him. Putin did not. Now there are 10,000 men heading to Moscow.

Supposedly it is over. Wagner announced that they are no longer advancing.

They didn't switch sides. They created a third side. A Mêlée à Trois.

To be honest I thought Wagner and also the Chechen commanded forces would cause chaos in Russia after the war - Putin unleashed the genies from their bottles in his desperation. Both see themselves as successors to Putin should he fall, and civil war was on the cards but more likely a conflict between Wagner and the Chechen forces of some form. I agree - moving DURING the war with Ukraine - that is totally unexpected!

But they've not switched sides tbf - this seems to be the first steps in a civil war. And it shows just how broken Russia is. The question is, will Wagner step back from the precipice after exacting some sort of price out of the Russian state? Or is this a battle for survival and so unstoppable.

The really really worrying this is when things get unpredictable like this, there is no telling how things could escalate further. Look at WW1 - the death of Franz Ferdinand helped unleash chaos in a way no one could have forseen.

Mercs are always on their own side first and foremost.

Purchased loyalty always has an expiry date, usually about 6 hours after the last payment clears.

They are on the side that pays them or that they see the most profit from.

Feel like no one has had any matching bingo cards in the past few years.

How many do they have not in Ukraine... Who are also willing to kill fellow Russians? If the average Russian military sentiment is, "Eh, let them through" this could be huge.

Plus a lot of the "Royal Guard" may be well-connected rich kids who are even less inclined to fight.

Way too soon to know for sure, but. 🍿

This is Ukraine's time to retake Crimea

Especially if you send the mercenaries on a nonsense mission to die a pointless death...

Especially when you then allow that mercenary group to release and recruit 30,000 prisoners

Tu avais raison.

It's very strange how things are going right now. The fact that they are quite effortlessly moving hundreds of kilometers through Russian territory is quite telling.

Its unreal

Oh some good old /. vibe here 😉

And also what if Prigozhin gets his hands on any nuclear facilities...

As bad as Putin is, I'm not sure Wagner would be better. They're even worse thugs than Putin :(

What he's been saying is that the Russian Ministry of Defense has been lying to Putin. So I'd say this is Wagner and Putin working together to manufacture a face-saving pretext to leave Ukraine.

Edit: I see this morning that Putin is denouncing Prigozhin so, maybe not!

little rebellion

They already control a city with one million inhabitants, with one of the five military headquarters of the Russian military. I wouldn't call this a "small rebellion" yet.

The Wagner Group, is a Russian paramilitary organization. It is seen as a private military company (PMC), a network of mercenaries, or a de facto private army of Russian President Vladimir Putin's former close ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The group operates beyond the law in Russia, where private military companies are officially forbidden. Because it operates in support of Russian interests, it receives equipment from the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and uses MoD installations for training, the Wagner Group is said to be a de facto unit of the MoD or Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU.

While the Wagner Group itself is not ideologically driven, various elements of Wagner have been linked to neo-Nazism and far-right extremism.