people the southern headquarters of the russian military is in this place. , rostov-on-don, prigozhin says he plans to lead his troops, quote, to moscow. speaking earlier this, morning putin confirmed prigozhin s claims. military and civilian functions within the city of rostov-on-don have been blocked. vowing to take, quote, decisive action to put down what he in the kremlin or calling the quote, armed rebellion that is being undertaken by a traitor. putin also vowed to not let the rebellion become a civil war. similar to the bolsheviks at the end of world war i. there are multiple reports indicating there has been small fighting along a major highway in the area. we presume that s between wagner and the russian military. as well as reports of convoys of military equipment being moved along that highway. russia s moving military into and around moscow and other major cities. you can see that mobilization on your screen here. this is moscow. these are pictures that were given
afternoon, i m yasmin vossoughian, on a very busy saturday afternoon. coming on the air today following an ongoing military conflict inside russia. we are now learning moments ago, you give guinea prigozhin, the leader of the wagner mercenary group is standing down. , this after escalation late yesterday as the group started making its way towards moscow, threatening vladimir putin s grip on power. the wagner group, until recently, was fighting alongside russian forces in ukraine, but yesterday accusing the kremlin of killing thousands of its soldiers based on quote unquote, false pretenses, prigozhin and his troops have taken control of the city home to the russian military headquarters for the ukraine war, we are unsure where the control stands now. in a televised address this morning, vladimir putin accused the wagner mercenaries of quote unquote treason, and vowing to punish anyone involved in a, quote, armed rebellion. we this is a criminal adventurous to campaign. , i
group s leader sent out a series of videos yesterday, blaming russia s military leadership for tricking russians into war. he s also blaming the military for killing thousands of his soldiers at field camps in ukraine. the private militia has been helping russia with its war efforts there. putin admits the situation in the rust abadan is complicated, but says the state will defend itself and repel the efforts. the russian government has already issued an arrest warrant for the group s leader . russia s military is also ramping up security in and around moscow. measures are said to include roadblocks and checkpoints. one of russia s top commanders is also telling the fighters to stop and obey the will of president putin again. if you are just now joining us, we are following breaking news out of moscow. we have been all night. that is where russian president vladimir putin is strongly condemning. the wagner groups apparent takeover of a city in the country s far west region. s
that remains unclear. another official, a senior european i spoke with says that it appeared that prigozhin was targeting the heads of the russian military, shoigu, the defense minister, and gerasimov, the top general. but once that didn t happen, once that plan was foiled, why he continued on this march and eventually gave up, that remains relatively unclear, wolf. there is some speculation that perhaps when shoigu crossed the border when he started marching towards moscow that maybe he thought that soldiers from the military, troops from the border guard, the fsb might join in his insurrection, and that did not happen. of course, wolf, you ll remember that he gave up on that march very suddenly. what we know now is that prigozhin appears to be in belarus. his troops appear to be in what he calls field camps back in ukraine. wolf, another thing that we re keeping an eye on is a general