What dramatic videos of Wagner march on Moscow reveal about rebellion – and what’s now expected to happen
More than 130 videos of the Wagner march on Moscow have been verified and reviewed by Sky News and the Centre for Information Resilience, making Saturday’s incident one of the most publicly documented of the Ukraine conflict.
“Not since the opening days of Russia’s full-scale invasion have our investigators at the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) seen so much imagery in such a short period,” said Belen Carrasco-Rodriguez, deputy lead of the Eyes on Russia project.
“This sort of open rebellion is impossible to hide from the world’s digital gaze.”
Wagner troops reportedly advanced north to 120 miles (200km) from Moscow when their convoy turned back
The most-recorded phase of the Wagner Group’s march to Moscow was the arrival of troops in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, according to the material we reviewed.
Forty-two of the 133 videos seen by CIR and Sky News were taken in the city, which is the Russian military’s logistical hub for its war in Ukraine.
Because of this, the region’s residents are no strangers to military activity. But when armed Wagner soldiers, tanks and armoured vehicles took up positions in the centre of the city early on Saturday morning, onlookers rushed to capture the scene.
This clip was filmed near the Southern Military District headquarters. In it, a group of around 20 armed men in military fatigues can be seen moving in formation behind an armoured vehicle. Nearby, several tanks and other military vehicles are lined up along an avenue that has shops and residential buildings.
It is one of many similar videos circulating on social media showing how Wagner troops asserted their presence in the city as morning broke. Around the same time, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin shared footage of him inside the Russian military HQ and later stated he was in control of all military sites in the region.
Yevgeny Prigozhin shared a clip of himself inside the Russian military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don early on Saturday morning. Pic: Telegram
Voronezh is another key location in Saturday’s events, with 22 of the 133 videos we reviewed showing incidents in the area.
Located more than 350 miles north of Rostov-on-Don, it lies along the M4 motorway – the main road used by Wagner as they advanced towards Moscow.
Footage from Voronezh is distinctive in that it depicts the moments Prigozhin’s campaign teetered into violent conflict, with Russian military helicopters and Wagner Group forces on the ground firing on one another. Most of the videos we found from the area capture these tense scenes.
The clip below was filmed at a car dealership on the outskirts of Voronezh city, where the M4 passes. In it, a helicopter can be seen flying low overhead. Men in green fatigues – thought to be Wagner fighters – fire what looks like an anti-aircraft missile from the nearby road in the direction of the chopper.
We know the incident took place in Voronezh, because the blue, white and grey structures match imagery provided on Google.
Slide the marker below to see how a screengrab from the video above matches separate imagery from the same location.
Another clip filmed just five minutes south on the same road shows a helicopter – possibly the same one – narrowly missing being hit by a rocket that almost hits the person recording.
The Wagner Group shot down six Russian military helicopters during the mutiny, according to Ukrainian sources.
In Moscow, much of the footage captured Russian military movements inside the city as it braced for what could be an armed confrontation on Putin’s doorstep. Of the material we viewed, many showed events on Friday evening after news of Prigozhin’s plan became public.
This clip shows at least seven large military trucks in Moscow’s Khamovniki district.
Other clips among the 17 from Moscow reviewed by CIR and Sky News show the defensive actions taken by Russian security forces the following day, including roadblocks like the one below in the city’s Yasenevo district.
The 133 videos we looked at are just some of the ones circulating depicting how Saturday’s unprecedented events folded.
Emily Ferris, research fellow at defence thinktank RUSI, said the high number of videos from the weekend was notable given how tightly controlled information about the war is within Russia.
She told Sky News: “Most of the information we’re relying on has been from the Ukrainian side, which means the overall picture we have about the war is quite skewed.
“We’ve got very little understanding of, say, Russian military morale, Russian public opinion. We are in the dark about a lot of those questions.”
Read more:
On streets of Moscow, people seem shaken up by Wagner rebellion
Aborted mutiny busts myth about Putin
As for the videos themselves, Ms Ferris said that while it was useful to see what happened as Wagner troops moved through Russia, there was still a lot of information missing.
She added: “It is really useful to have video footage of them storming a military building – what is more useful is the interpretation of what happened next.
“I think unfortunately that is testament to the power of the Russian suppressive machine.
“I think what we can expect in the next few weeks – while we can’t say anything for certain – is that there’s going to be a huge amount of restrictions on footage like this, on media, a massive crackdown on anybody that looked like they were in any way sympathetic towards Wagner’s cause.”
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
The brutality of Russia’s drone assaults on Ukraine’s towns and cities shows no let up.
“Savage strikes, a deliberate targeted terror” is how the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the latest overnight bombardment.
Some 595 attack drones and 48 missiles were involved and even if only a small fraction made it through Ukrainian air defences, the destruction – in Sumy and Odessa, Zaporizhia and Kyiv – is significant.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Russia strikes Kyiv in major attack
Also overnight, Denmark reported yet more drone sightings.
It has not named Russia directly but after a week in which unidentified drones have resulted in the temporary shutdown of military and civilian airports, it is banning all civil drone flights and describing the threat as a hybrid attack.
Germany is also raising the alarm over unexplained drone activity along its border with Denmark.
Germany’s interior minister said on Saturday: “We are witnessing an arms race, an arms race between drone threats and drone defences. It is a race we cannot afford to lose.”
NATO is having to deploy extra assets to beef up its Baltic Sea defences and its Eastern flank.
European nations are working to establish a drone wall along their borders with Russia and Ukraine.
Germany is setting up a drone defence centre to make sure it has what it needs to protect itself.
The Kremlin is forcing NATO to divert assets to protect its airspace and sub-sea infrastructure at a time when Europe is trying to work out how best to support and finance Ukraine.
Read more:
Putin’s top diplomat issues warning
Why Trump has made a U-turn
With drones an inexpensive element of its hybrid warfare arsenal, Russia is sending a clear warning that it can relatively easily chip away at Europe’s defences and that Europe had better focus on protecting itself.
“If NATO begins to look too rattled, that actually is encouragement for Putin precisely to step up the pressure,” says Mark Galeotti, a specialist in Russian security. “So really we need to be holding our nerve.
“Yes, reserving the right to shoot things down that look like direct threats, but otherwise actually talking down, not talking up, the nature of the threat while of course we arm so that we are even more prepared.”
Last week, Estonia said its fighter jets had escorted three Russian MIG fighter jets out of their airspace after a 12-minute incursion, which Russia denies ever took place.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Russia denies violating Estonia airspace amid NATO outrage
On Saturday, Estonia pledged €10m (£8.7m) to NATO’s “Prioritised Ukraine Requirement List” or PURL programme, which sees US-produced weapons, paid for by NATO’s European partners, fast-tracked to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy posted on Sunday after speaking with the NATO secretary general that PURL is moving forward well. And that is just what Russia is trying to prevent.
Hamas’s armed group has claimed it has lost contact with two hostages as a result of Israel’s operations in Gaza – after it called on air deployments to be stopped for 24 hours.
In a statement, Hamas’s armed al-Qassam Brigades said it had demanded that Israel halt air sorties for 24 hours, starting at 6pm, in part of Gaza City, to remove the hostages from danger.
It comes a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet US President Donald Trump and as the number of those killed in Gaza surpasses the 66,000 mark, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Its figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Volunteer nurse’s video diary of Gaza horrors
A total of 48 hostages are still being held captive by Hamas, the militant group which rules Gaza, with about 20 believed by Israel to still be alive. A total of 251 hostages were taken on 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel which killed 1,200 people.
Situation on the ground
In Gaza, a war-torn enclave where famine has been declared in some areas and where Israel has been accused of committing acts of genocide – which it has repeatedly denied – the almost two-year war raged on.
On Sunday, the number of those killed rose to at least 21 as five people were killed in an airstrike in the Al Naser area, local health authorities said, while medics reported 16 more deaths in strikes on houses in central Gaza.
The Civil Emergency Service in Gaza said late on Saturday that Israel had denied 73 requests, sent via international
organisations, to rescue injured Palestinians in Gaza City.
Israeli authorities had no immediate comment. The military earlier said forces were expanding operations in the city and
that five militants firing an anti-tank missile towards Israeli troops had been killed by the Israeli air force.
Read more:
Volunteer nurse’s video diary of Gaza horrors
Blair being lined up to lead temporary Gaza administration – reports
‘We will get it done’
In Monday’s White House meeting, President Trump is expected to share a new 21-point proposal for an immediate ceasefire.
His proposal would include the release of all hostages within 48 hours and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave, according to three Arab officials briefed on the plan, the PA news agency reports.
A Hamas official said the group was briefed on the plan but has yet to receive an official offer from Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Hamas has said it is ready to “study any proposals positively and responsibly”.
Mr Trump, who has been one of Israel’s greatest allies, said on Sunday there is “a real chance for greatness in the Middle East”.
It is unclear, however, what Mr Trump was specifically referring to.
He said in a Truth Social post: “We have a real chance for Greatness in the Middle East. All are on board for something special, first time ever. We will get it done.”
On Friday – the same day a video of diplomats walking out on Mr Netanyahu during his address to the United Nations went viral – Mr Trump said he believed the US had reached a deal on easing fighting in Gaza, saying it “will get the hostages back” and “end the war”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Diplomats walk out as Israeli PM speaks at UN
“I think we maybe have a deal on Gaza, very close to a deal on Gaza,” the US president told reporters on the White House lawn as he was leaving to attend the Ryder Cup.
Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed an agreement to end the war was imminent, only for nothing to materialise.
Weeks ago, he said: “I think we’re going to have a deal on Gaza very soon.”
It was one sentence among the many words Donald Trump spoke this week that caught my attention.
Midway through a jaw-dropping news conference where he sensationally claimed to have “found an answer on autism”, he said: “Bobby (Kennedy) wants to be very careful with what he says, but I’m not so careful with what I say.”
The US president has gone from pushing the envelope to completely unfiltered.
Last Sunday, moments after Charlie Kirk‘s widow Erika had publicly forgiven her husband’s killer, Mr Trump told the congregation at his memorial service that he “hates his opponents”.
President Donald Trump embraces Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika. Pic: AP
Twenty-four hours later, he drew fierce rebuke from medical experts by linking the use of Tylenol (paracetamol) during pregnancy to increased risk of autism.
The president treats professional disapproval not as a liability but as evidence of authenticity, fuelling the aura that he is a challenger of conventions.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘Paracetamol use in pregnancy perfectly safe’
On Tuesday, he went to the United Nations, where his frustrations over a stalled escalator and teleprompter failure were the prelude to the most combative address.
“I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell,” he told his audience, deriding Europe’s approach to immigration as a “failed experiment of open borders”.
Mr Trump addresses the UN General Assembly in New York. Pic: Reuters
Then came a U-turn on Ukraine, suggesting the country could win back all the land it has lost to Russia.
Most politicians would be punished for inconsistency, but Mr Trump recasts this as strategic genius – framing himself as dictating the terms.
It is hard to keep track when his expressed hopes for peace in Ukraine and Gaza are peppered with social media posts condemning the return of Jimmy Kimmel to late-night television.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Trump’s major shift in Ukraine policy
Perhaps most striking of all is his reaction to the indictment of James Comey, the FBI director he fired during his first term.
In theory, this should raise questions about the president’s past conflicts with law enforcement, but he frames it as vindication, proof that his enemies fall while he survives.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Ex-FBI chief: ‘Costs to standing up to Trump’
Mr Trump has spent much of his political career cultivating an image of a man above the normal consequences of politics, law or diplomacy, but he appears to feel more invincible than ever.
Read more from Sky News:
Musk and Prince Andrew named in latest Epstein files
Trump: ‘Looks like we have a deal’ to end war in Gaza
From funerals to world summits, world peace to public health, he projects the same image: rules are for others.
It is the politics of the untouchable.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment12 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024