There are fears of a coup in Russia this morning as the owner of the Wagner private military Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed his forces have driven into the Russian city of Rostov facing no resistance.
Military vehicles were seen on the streets of Russia after Prigozhin called for an armed rebellion in direct challenge to the Kremlin.
Prigozhin said his troops crossed into Russia as he called for the ousting of the defense minister and vowed to punish military leaders whom he accused of killing 2,000 of his fighters.
The Wagner chief said his forces would take all necessary steps to topple the country's military leadership. 'We have crossed state borders,' Prigozhin declaimed, 'We'll destroy anything that gets in the way. ... We go all the way.'
Vladimir Putin's spokesperson said the Russian President had been informed of Prigozhin's claims and 'necessary measures are being taken.' The FSB security services earlier said they had opened a criminal investigation into Prigozhin and called for his arrest.
The standoff, many of whose details remained unclear, looked like the biggest domestic crisis President Vladimir Putin has faced since he ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine - something he called a 'special military operation' - in February last year.
Security was stepped up on Friday night at government buildings, transport facilities and other key locations in Moscow, Russia's TASS news agency reported, citing a source at a security service.
As the standoff between Prigozhin and the defence ministry appeared to come to a head, the ministry issued a statement saying Prigozhin's accusations were 'not true and are an informational provocation'.
Prigozhin said his actions were not a military coup. But in a frenzied series of audio messages, in which the sound of his voice sometimes varied and could not be independently verified, he appeared to suggest that his 25,000-strong militia was en route to oust the leadership of the defence ministry in Moscow.
Prigozhin said: '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,' he said, promising to tackle any checkpoints or air forces that got in Wagner's way.
'We will consider anyone who tries to resist a threat and quickly destroy them,' he said.
Security was being tightened in Moscow, the TASS news agency said, focusing on what it called the capital's most important government sites and infrastructure.
The FSB domestic security service said it had opened a criminal case against him for calling for an armed mutiny, a crime punishable with a jail term of up to 20 years.
'Prigozhin's statements are in fact calls for the start of an armed civil conflict on Russian territory and his actions are a 'stab in the back' of Russian servicemen fighting pro-fascist Ukrainian forces,' the FSB said.
'We urge the ... fighters not to make irreparable mistakes, to stop any forcible actions against the Russian people, not to carry out the criminal and traitorous orders of Prigozhin, to take measures to detain him.'
The Kremlin said Putin had been informed and that 'necessary measures are being taken'.
It is still unclear the full extent of the situation in Russia amid claims and counter claims from both the Russian military command and Wagner PMC.
Army Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseyev issued a video appeal in which he asked Prigozhin to reconsider his actions.
'Only the president has the right to appoint the top leadership of the armed forces, and you are trying to encroach on his authority,' he said.
General Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine whom Prigozhin has praised in the past, in a separate video urged Wagner to 'stop'.
'The enemy is just waiting for our internal political situation to deteriorate,' said Surovikin.
Before it is too late, and it must be done, you must submit to the will and order of the people's president of the Russian Federation. Stop the columns and return them to their permanent bases,' he said.
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.
The defence ministry has - until now - largely ignored his criticism, at least in public.
An unverified video posted on a Telegram channel close to Wagner showed the purported scene of an air strike against Wagner forces. It showed a forest where small fires were burning and trees appeared to have been broken by force. There appeared to be one body, but no more direct evidence of any attack.
It carried the caption: 'A missile attack was launched on the camps of PMC (Private Military Company) Wagner. Many victims. According to eyewitnesses, the strike was delivered from the rear, that is, it was delivered by the military of the Russian Ministry of Defence.'
'This scum will be stopped,' he said, in a reference to Shoigu.
'The evil embodied by the country's military leadership must be stopped,' he shouted, urging the army not to offer any resistance to Wagner as it moves to 'restore justice.'
'Today, seeing that we have not been broken, they conducted missile strikes at our rear camps. A huge number of our fighters, our comrades died,' he said in a series of furious audio messages released by his spokespeople.
Prigozhin said his actions did not amount to a military coup. Russia's FSB security services has now launched a criminal probe into calls to stage the 'armed mutiny'.
'In connection with these statements, Russia's FSB has opened a criminal case into calls to stage an armed mutiny,' the National Anti-Terror Committee said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies, which added: 'We demand that illegal actions be immediately halted'.
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