"Countdown begins": Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council Secretary outlines benefits for Ukraine from Wagner's revolt
Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, believes that the collapse of Russia is inevitable due to events on 24 June concerning the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC). He also suggests that Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko will serve as one of the negotiators after the war.
Source: Danilov on Facebook
Quote from Danilov: "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".
Details: Danilov believes that Prigozhin'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.
The NSDC secretary stated that 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 reckons that 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.
Quote from Danilov: "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.
Putin's regime has been stabbed in the back with a knife, if not instantly lethal [blow], but certainly inevitable [to be fatal], albeit delayed in time."
Previously: On the evening of Saturday, 24 June, the press service of the self-proclaimed president of Belarus announced that Aleksandr Lukashenko held talks with Yevgeny Prigozhin, and he accepted the proposal to stop the movement of the Wagnerites on the territory of Russia.
Afterwards, Prigozhin announced that his mercenaries were turning their convoys around and going in the opposite direction to the field camps.
Later, the Kremlin announced that the criminal case against Prigozhin would be closed and he would "go to Belarus".
Background:
- On the evening of 23 June, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that the regular Russian army had launched a missile strike on the Wagner mercenaries’ rear camps. He, therefore, deployed 25,000 of his mercenaries "to restore justice".
- On the morning of 24 June, Prigozhin claimed that his forces had taken control of military facilities in Rostov-on-Don, including the air base, and were heading "to Moscow" and that his soldiers had shot down three Russian helicopters. Wagner mercenaries also seized military facilities in the Russian city of Voronezh.
- In an emergency address on 24 June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was "fighting for survival" and that attempts were being made to "organise a rebellion" in the country.
- A criminal case was initiated against Prigozhin for 'organising an armed rebellion'; Article 279 of the Russian Criminal Code provides a sentence of 12 to 20 years imprisonment.
- On the afternoon of 24 June, Russian media reported that the Office of the President of the Russian Federation anticipated that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group fighters were likely to reach Moscow’s outskirts in the next few hours, with fighting expected near Russia’s capital. Ukrainian intelligence had information that Putin had urgently left Moscow for his residence in Valdai. The convoy of the Wagner Group’s forces was spotted 400 kilometres from Moscow.
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