PUTIN’S BIGGEST BETRAYAL: WARLORD’S MARCH SHOOK RUSSIA… THEN ENDED IN DEATH
On this day in 2023, Russia witnessed the most serious challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule in decades when Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary force, launched a stunning rebellion against Russia’s military leadership.
Furious over what he claimed was the needless sacrifice of Wagner fighters during the bloody battle for Bakhmut, Prigozhin accused senior commanders of incompetence and ordered his battle-hardened troops into action. Wagner forces seized key military facilities in Rostov-on-Don before sending tanks and armoured vehicles racing towards Moscow in what Prigozhin described as a “march of justice.”
As the convoy advanced, Wagner fighters reportedly shot down an IL-22 airborne command aircraft and five military helicopters sent to stop their advance. But with Russia bracing for a possible showdown, the mutiny ended abruptly after mediation by Alexander Lukashenko.
Prigozhin halted the march and agreed to relocate some of his forces to Belarus. Just two months later, he and several of his closest allies died in a plane crash, bringing a dramatic end to one of the most extraordinary episodes in modern Russian history.