Fuel depot bombed in Russian city, Moscow mayor suspends outdoor events, asks residents to stay indoors

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin asked residents and others not to travel through the city and to limit their freedom of movement in the capital.

Russian crisis updates: Amid the uprising of the private military company Wagner and reports that its personnel are headed for the Russian capital, the Moscow region has suspended all mass outdoor events until July 1, authorities announced, as reported by the media.

This was done after Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin asked residents and others not to travel through the city and to limit their movements around the capital as rebels from the mercenary Wagner Group appear to be moving towards the city, the government reported. BBC.

“The situation is difficult,” Sobyanin said in his statement to Telegram.

He added that it is possible that some roads or neighborhoods in the city will be closed to traffic.

Sobyanin has just published a statement on Telegram announcing that “a counter-terrorism regime has been declared in Moscow” and that Monday will be a “non-working day” to “minimize risk,” according to the BBC.

He asked Muscovites not to “travel around the city as much as possible”.

“The city services are on high alert,” he said.

Earlier in the day, life went on as usual, albeit with a heavy security presence and with roadblocks set up to control vehicles, while some bridges were also closed. Wagner mercenaries appear to be moving north from central regions of Russia towards the capital, the BBC reported.

Verified information from the ground is relatively sparse, but Wagner forces appear to be moving north toward Moscow, it said.

This morning Wagner mercenaries were seen in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don; reports later emerged that Wagner forces were in Voronezh, 560 km to the north.

Now the governor of the Lipetsk region, north of Voronezh, said Wagner troops are moving through the region, the BBC reported.

Moscow is only 400 km north. It is not clear how many troops Wagner has in each place, or how large the group seen in Lipetsk was.

Meanwhile, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Russian mercenary group, appeared to suggest that he sent an armed convoy on Saturday on a 1,200 km attack towards Moscow to overthrow the leadership. Russian officials said a military convoy was on the main highway connecting the southern part of European Russia, bordering Ukraine, with Moscow. Prigozhin announced that he was at army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia and that his fighters controlled the city’s military areas.

A fuel depot has been set on fire in Russia’s southern city of Voronezh. “In Voronezh (authorities) are extinguishing a burning fuel depot. There are 100 firefighters and more than 30 vehicles on the scene,” Governor Alexander Gusev said.

“According to initial information, there were no casualties,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a televised address to the nation that the actions of Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner mercenary group posed a “mortal threat” to Russia and amounted to internal treason.

On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the uprising launched by members of the Wagner mercenary group was evidence of Russia’s inherent political instability.