The Wagner Group staged a rebellion in Russia, in what has been the greatest domestic challenge to Vladimir Putin since he took power.
The Russian mercenaries surged most of the way to Moscow before their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin called off the advance and ordered them to turn back to “avoid bloodshed”.
Here is how one of the most dramatic days in recent Russian history unfolded.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group boss, releases a video stepping up his feud with Russia’smilitary top brass and for the first time rejects Vladimir Putin’s main justification for invading Ukraine.
In a series of audio recordings posted on Telegram, the man known as “Putin’s Chef” says the “evil” of Russia’s military leadership “must be stopped” and his mercenaries will “march for justice” against the Russian military.
More on Russia
Related Topics:
Russia’s FSB security service responds by opening a criminal case against Prigozhin, saying he has called for “armed mutiny”.
The deputy commander of Russia’s Ukraine campaign, General Sergei Surovikin, urges Wagner to give up their opposition to the military leadership and return to their bases.
Advertisement
Image: The route taken by the Wagner Group up towards Moscow
Saturday
Prigozhin says his men have crossed the border from Ukraine into Russia and are ready to go “all the way” against the Russian military.
Wagner fighters enter the southern Russian city of Rostov and appear to control the military headquarters that runs Russian operations in Ukraine.
The White House announces it is monitoring the situation and will be consulting with allies and partners on developments.
The governor of Rostov Oblast tells residents to remain calm and stay indoors as it becomes clear that Wagner forces have taken control of the city of Rostov.
Russia’s Defence Ministry appeals to Wagner fighters to abandon Prigozhin, saying they have been “deceived and dragged into a criminal adventure”.
A Russian security source says Wagner mercenaries have taken control of all military facilities in the city of Voronezh, about 300 miles south of Moscow.
Putin makes a televised address vowing to crush what he calls an armed mutiny. He accuses Prigozhin of “treason” and a “stab in the back”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
4:59
Putin accuses Prigozhin of treason
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Putin ally, says his forces are ready to help put down the rebellion using harsh methods if necessary.
European governments including Britain, France, Germany and Italy all issue statements saying they are closely watching developments in Russia.
Russian military helicopters open fire on a convoy of rebel mercenaries already more than half way to Moscow in a lightning advance after seizing Rostov overnight.
Image: Firefighters battle a blaze at an oil depot
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says “Russia’s weakness is obvious” and the longer Moscow keeps its troops and mercenaries in Ukraine, the more chaos it will invite back home.
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, says it is clear that Prigozhin’s attempt to destabilise society and ignite a fratricidal civil war has failed.
Moscow’s soldiers set up a machine gun position on the southwest edge of the capital, photographs also show armed police gathering at the point where the M4 highway – which Wagner mercenaries are moving along – reaches the Russian capital.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks by telephone to Putin and urges him to act with common sense. Belarus issues a statement reaffirming its pro-Russia stance.
The White House says Joe Biden has spoken to the leaders of France, Germany and the UK, and that they have re-affirmed their support for Ukraine. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also says he has spoken to G7 foreign ministers and the European Union high representative for foreign affairs.
Putin signs a law permitting 30-day detentions for breaking martial law in places where it has been imposed, the RIA news agency reports.
Wagner mercenaries are promised an amnesty if they lay down their weapons “but they should do it fast”, the TASS news agency reports politician Pavel Krasheninnikov as saying.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry issues a statement warning Western countries against using the Wagner Group’s mutiny “to achieve their Russophobic goals”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:57
Wagner leader’s audio message calling off advance
The office of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko says he has brokered a deal with Prigozhin who has agreed to de-escalate the situation.
Prigozhin says he has ordered his fighters advancing on Moscow in a convoy to turn around and return to their bases to avoid bloodshed. It is agreed he will not be prosecuted for the attempted coup and leave Russia for Belarus.
Pictures show Prigozhin and his Wagner troops being cheered as they leave Rostov.
Four more arrests have been made by French police investigating the Louvre museum heist.
Two men and two women from the Parisregion were detained on Tuesday, prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.
Ms Beccuau’s statement did not say what role the quartet are suspected of having played in the robbery. The two men are aged 38 and 39, and the two women are aged 31 and 40.
They are being interrogated by police, who can hold them for questioning for 96 hours.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:36
Louvre: How ‘heist of the century’ unfolded
The latest arrests come after investigating magistrates filed preliminary charges against three men and one woman who were arrested last month.
The haul – which included a diamond and emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise, jewels linked to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense, and Empress Eugenie’s pearl and diamond tiara – has not been recovered.
The heist was pulled off in mere minutes last month – and took place while the Louvre was open to visitors, raising doubts over the credibility of the world’s most-visited museum as a guardian for its priceless works.
On Sunday 19 October, two men used a stolen furniture lift to access the second floor Galerie d’Apollon.
They then cracked open display cases with angle grinders before escaping with their loot and fleeing on the back of two scooters driven by accomplices.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:35
Moment thieves escape Louvre in jewel heist
The Paris prosecutor previously said the robbery appeared to be the work of small-time criminals rather than professional gangsters.
Speaking shortly after the heist, art detective Arthur Brand told Sky News that detectives faced a “race against time” to recover the stolen treasure.
“These crown jewels are so famous, you just cannot sell them,” Mr Brand said. “The only thing they can do is melt the silver and gold down, dismantle the diamonds, try to cut them. That’s the way they will probably disappear forever.
“They [the police] have a week. If they catch the thieves, the stuff might still be there. If it takes longer, the loot is probably gone and dismantled. It’s a race against time.”
Washington woke up this morning to a flurry of developments on Ukraine.
It was the middle of the night in DC when a tweet dropped from Ukraine’s national security advisor, Rustem Umerov.
He said that the US and Ukraine had reached a “common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva.”
He added that Volodymyr Zelenskyy would travel to America “at the earliest suitable date in November to complete final steps and make a deal with President Trump”.
By sunrise in Washington, a US official was using similar but not identical language to frame progress.
The official, speaking anonymously to US media, said that Ukraine had “agreed” to Trump’s peace proposal “with some minor details to be worked out”.
More on Donald Trump
Related Topics:
In parallel, it’s emerged that talks have been taking place in Abu Dhabi. The Americans claim to have met both Russian and Ukrainian officials there, though the Russians have not confirmed attendance.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
8:13
Peace deal ‘agreement’: What we know
“I have nothing to say. We are following the media reports,” Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, told Russian state media.
Trump is due to travel to his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago tonight, where he will remain until Sunday.
We know the plan has been changed from its original form, but it’s clear that Zelenskyy wants to be seen to agree to something quickly – that would go down well with President Trump.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial US and Israeli-backed aid distribution group, has said it will permanently cease operations.
Set up as an alternative to United Nations aid programmes in May, GHF’s executive director John Acree said on Monday that it “succeeded in our mission of showing there’s a better way to deliver aid to Gazans”.
The foundation had already closed down aid distribution sites after US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan was agreed by Hamasand Israelin October.
The GHF which began operations in Gazaafter an Israeli blockade of food deliveries, lasting nearly three months, was criticised by Palestinians, aid workers and health officials who said it forced people to risk their lives to reach the sites.
Image: File pic: Reuters
According to witnesses and videos posted to social media, Israeli soldiers repeatedly opened fire at the sites, killing hundreds. The IDF denied this, saying it only fired warning shots as a crowd-control measure or if its troops were in danger.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:54
Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open
MSF – also known as Doctors Without Borders – said in a report in August that the GHF sites “morphed into a laboratory of cruelty,” and described scenes there as “orchestrated killing”.
More on Gaza
Related Topics:
‘We are proud,’ says GHF director
Mr Acree said in a statement through the GHF’s website that “from the outset, GHF’s goal was to meet an urgent need” and to hand over a successful aid operation to “the broader international community”.
The GHF would hand over its work to the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center in Israel overseeing the Gaza ceasefire.
“We are winding down our operations as we have succeeded in our mission of showing there’s a better way to deliver aid to Gazans,” Mr Acree said.
Image: File pic: Reuters
The GHF director added: “At a critical juncture, we are proud to have been the only aid operation that reliably and safely provided free meals directly to Palestinian people in Gaza, at scale and without diversion.
“From our very first day of operations, our mission was singular: feed civilians in desperate need. We built a new model that worked, saved lives, and restored dignity to civilians in Gaza.”
According to the GHF website, the group distributed more than three million food boxes, totalling 187 million meals, and supplied 1.1 million packs of Ready-to-Use Supplementary Food (RUSF) for malnourished children.
In a statement, Hamas welcomed the closure of GHF and accused it of being a project that “engineered starvation” in partnership with Israel.
A Hamas spokesperson said: “Since its entry into the Gaza Strip, this foundation was part of the occupation’s security system, which adopted distribution mechanisms entirely disconnected from humanitarian principles, and created dangerous and degrading conditions for the dignity of the starving Palestinian people during their attempts to obtain a piece of bread, resulting in the killing and injury of thousands, through sniper operations and deliberate killing.”
They also called on international legal bodies to hold “this foundation and its officers accountable for their crimes against our people”.
US state department deputy spokesperson Tommy Piggot also said on X that the aid group “shared valuable lessons learned with us and our partners”.
“GHF’s model, in which Hamas could no longer loot and profit from stealing aid, played a huge role in getting Hamas to the table and achieving a ceasefire,” he added.