Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin’s defence minister visits troops in first appearance since Wagner mutiny

Officials believe any fear of Putin preventing Western states from delivering key weaponry had been smashed – and that it is crucial Ukraine keep receiving support from allies. Bel Trew reports from Kyiv:

The silence is deafening.

On Saturday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian hotdog-seller turned mercenary, was firing off expletive-riddled voice notes and videos every other hour that were being broadcast across the world.

In them, the chief of Wagner Group, a powerful private military company (PMC), blamed the Russian Ministry of Defence for bombing his troops in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. He accused them of lying to his country about the motivations for going to war in Ukraine, and he vowed to get revenge.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday issued via the Kremlin website his first statement since an armed mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group, congratulating participants of an industrial forum.

It was not immediately clear when or where Putin’s statement was recorded.

Putin made a national address to the Russian people on Saturday condemning the mutiny by Wagner mercenaries as a “stab in the back” and vowing to crush it.

He has not commented publicly on the subsequent deal, announced late on Saturday, that appeard to defuse the crisis and avert possible bloodshed by allowing the Wagner fighters to return to base and their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to move to Belarus.

Ukrainian forces have liberated the village of Rivnopil from Russian control in the southeast, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on Monday.

Maliar said in an earlier statement that Kyiv’s forces had liberated about 130 square kilometres (50 square miles) in the south since Ukraine began offensive operations several weeks ago.

Ukraine expects to receive a clear invitation for simplified accession to NATO when the military alliance holds a summit next month in Lithuania, a senior official said on Monday.

Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential staff, reiterated Ukraine‘s position on NATO accession in comments published after Russia thwarted a march by mercenaries heading towards Moscow at the weekend.

“Ukraine‘s position: the expected result is to receive an invitation for simplified accession at the summit in July. But, importantly, we would like to receive an absolutely clear signal that would establish Ukraine‘s path to NATO membership,” he told a briefing for German media.

Internal UK government assessments have reportedly warned that the country should prepared for the fall of the Putting regime after the attempted Wagner coup.

British officials and diplomats are getting ready for a range of different scenarios, according to The Times.

“From the very beginning of the invasion, one of the most obvious scenarios was that the war could lead to political unrest back home in Russia,” a senior government source told the newspaper.

On the prospect of regime change, they adding: “We have to wait, watch and see what comes next. This could be chapter one of something new.”

John Foreman, former UK defence attache at the British Embassy in Moscow, said a successful coup by the Wagner Group would have been a “worst case scenario”.

“You’ve got to be careful what you wish for. Prigozhin is not some sort of liberal, peace-loving democrat. He’s a fascist.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the European Union on Monday to “accelerate Russia’s defeat” by stepping up support for Ukraine.

Kuleba, who was attending a meeting with EU foreign ministers, said on Twitter the fact that tanks had moved towards Moscow during a thwarted coup showed that “Ukraine will win”.

“At #FAC (Foreign Affairs Council), I urged the EU to accelerate Russia’s defeat by stepping up support for Ukraine,” Kuleba wrote.

The aborted mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group in Russia demonstrates that Moscow committed a strategic mistake by waging war on Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

“The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President (Vladimir) Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine,” he told reporters on a visit to Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.

“As Russia continues its assault, it is even more important to continue our support to Ukraine.”

Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin remains under investigation by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on suspicion of organising an armed mutiny, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Monday, citing an unidentified source.

The criminal case against Prigozhin was initiated on June 23 after he announced a “march for justice” by his fighters against the military leadership, who he said were cowards who were undermining Russia‘s war effort in Ukraine.

As part of a deal, as set out by the Kremlin’s spokesman, criminal charges against the mutineers were to be dropped in exchange for their return to camps, and Prigozhin was to move to Belarus.

On its website, Kommersant cited its source as saying there had not yet been time to change the status of the case.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said he was cancelling a counter-terrorism regime imposed in the Russian capital during what the authorities on Saturday called an armed mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group.

Sobyanin made the announcement in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging application on Monday. Russian media cited local Federal Security Service (FSB) offices as saying similar regimes had been cancelled in the Voronezh and Moscow regions.

Separately, Russia‘s National Anti-terrorism Committee said the situation in the country was “stable”.

Anti-terrorist regimes were imposed in the three regions on Saturday, as a column of rebellious Wagner mercenaries moved towards Moscow, exchanging fire with security forces