“Countdown begins” senior Ukrainian security official on Wagner PMC coup attempt in Russia

The events with the Wagner coup attempt on June 24 will lead to the inevitable destruction of Russia, as senior Ukrainian security official Oleksii Danilov says.

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko may become one of the negotiators after the war.

Anything that might go wrong in Russia will go wrong, and this 'Prigozhin [chief of the Wagner PMC] incident' may or might have triggered processes with unpredictable consequences. The countdown has begun, he said.

Danilov believes that Wagner's actions are the first stage of putting Putin's system in disarray, and the Wagner leader is only part of the group and the plan for the disruption process.

There is a group of security forces, officials, and oligarchs in Russia dissatisfied with Putin and that yesterday's "march on Rostov" was proof of serious intentions, capabilities, and the establishment of conditions for the start of a power transition, either voluntary or forced.

Danilov believes the only way for Putin to save himself is to purge the security forces, bring down Wagner, impose martial law in Russia, and initiate mass repression.

The real group of future Russian negotiators with Ukraine already exists, but it remains in the shadows, although Lukashenko's participation in this process is not ruled out, he summarized.

What's going on with the Wagner coup?

On June 23, the Wagner's leader Yevgenii Prigozhyn claimed that the Russian army had attacked the rear positions of the PMC, killing "a huge number of soldiers." In response, he announced a "march" to Rostov-on-Don to "deal with the lawlessness in the army" and Russia's defense minister.

Putin addressed the people and spoke of civil war and rebellion.

In turn, Prigozhyn said that none of his soldiers would come forward at the request of the Russian President.

On June 24, Prigozhin's mercenaries seized military facilities in Rostov, including the headquarters of the Southern Military District and an airfield, and took control of military facilities in the city of Voronezh. The Wagner PMC convoy was also in the Lipetsk region. The Russian authorities were already preparing for the siege of Moscow.

Eventually, on the evening of June 24, self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that the owner of the Wagner PMC had agreed to stop the movement of mercenaries in Russia in a conversation with Lukashenko.

Subsequently, Prihozhyn himself confirmed that his mercenaries were turning their convoys around and heading back to the battlefield in Ukraine. The mercenaries "passed within a day without reaching 200 kilometers to Moscow." He did not mention the conversation with Lukashenko.

The Kremlin said that the criminal case against the Wagner's founder would be dropped, he would "go to Belarus," and the authorities would not prosecute the mercenaries for attempting a coup. The guarantee that Pryzhozhin will be able to go to Belarus "is the word of the President of Russia."