making their way towards the capitol, moscow. putin says russia is facing a battle for its future in the face of an armed mutiny in its country. there are now 30 day penalties for breaking martial law. the head of the wagner mercenary group, yevgeny prigozhin, says his fighters have taken over rostov on don. tanks were seen in the city earlier today, which is the military command centre for the russian army s war in ukraine. then as i mentioned, wagner troops also appear to be taking action in the voronezh region, which lies half way between rostov and moscow, over 600 kilometres north on the m4 highway. there are reports of fighting between russian troops and wagner mercenaries in and around the city of voronezh.
when russia launched its full scale invasion of ukraine. when progress stalled, the wagner group was brought in to help, transforming prigozhin into a public figure and one of the key voices in support of the war. but as wagner s death toll soared, his relationship with russia s military worsened. here he is in may, surrounded by bodies of his fighters, swearing at russia s defence minister and the head of armed forces. there is evidence that this approach is appealing to hard lined supporters of the war and a recent poll asking russians which public figures they trust most features prigozhin in the top five for the first time. whether this rise in popularity bothers putin is impossible to say. some experts think the infighting may be playing into putin s hands as he likes controlled competition. divide and rule he divides the army into two powerful centres of power, so you have the regular army and then you have prigozhin.
understand that turkey s president has spoken with russia s vladimir putin by phone and emphasised the need to act with common sense. i again come out via the reuters news agency and from a statement from the turkish presidency. there is the latest developments and we will bring you more as and when we get them. 0ur correspondent, andrew harding, is in the donbas region of ukraine. he told us about the reaction there to developments in russia. this morning we were out early on the front lines near bakhmut, this city that s been so pulverised by the russians who now occupy the city. the ukrainians though now launching fierce counter attacks and we are just back from those front lines, with, as you say, some ukrainian medics. everybody had heard the news from russia, everybody who is 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.
armed forces have frankly performed poorly in dealing with the ukrainians and prigozhin has been there as a constant good and threat and demonstrate that the russian armed forces should be doing better. this is why prigozhin has lasted for as long as he has. he has now plainly stepped over the boundaries and we will see what the effect of that is. but worrying for putin is that is. but worrying for putin is that prigozhin has a lot of popular residence within russia, he is a sort of pop tough guy for russian nationalists, a lot of them are soak called defence bloggers and so a tough guy with this national strand in russian opinions wanting to see a much tougher russian approach to the war in ukraine. just much tougher russian approach to the war in ukraine. war in ukraine. just very quickly, we are talking war in ukraine. just very quickly, we are talking about war in ukraine. just very quickly, we are talking about that - war in ukraine. just very quickly, we are talking about th
number of troops are kept there before they go into ukraine. so the wagner group say they have control of that. they have also moved to the city of voronezh and they did that going up this m4 motorway. this normally would be about an eight hour drive. at the moment, we are getting unconfirmed reports of fighting in voronezh between russian forces and wagner mercenaries. we also, our sources within bbc news russia, so the wagner group may have taken over some key military sites. they have also seen early at those pictures of an oil depot on fire. why is this city important to the wagner group? if you look, rostov on don and moscow, this is halfway between the two cities and it is understood from uk minister of defence, that the ultimate aim of the wagner group could be to make it to moscow. which they were to do may