"Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe."

Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince

This is not a "war", it is a "special military operation".

This is not a "coup", it is a "march for justice".

The Wagnerites also seized the buildings of the head office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB department, the administration of #Rostov and one of the police departments, according to local channels. Nobody in the city understands what's going on.

https://press.coop/@nexta_tv/110596856860216270

Breaking
„Ukraine runs out of popcorn“

https://twitter.com/war__online/status/1672535209038827521?s=20

I would like to submit "Putin panics and nukes his own people to stop the advance" for my Bingo card.

25,000 troops marching on Moscow. How many does the Kremlin have not already in Ukraine?

More evidence as to why you don’t hire mercenaries. They are only loyal to the money. I hope the US is watching with their love of PMC’s.

Holly shit this has been picked up by the BBC.

Remember, it doesn't matter if they succeed or not. The fact it has happened will terrify Putin.

Generally, I don't like to gloat, but I did call that one ~ June 5th over on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/france/comments/140qkwu/destructions_incursions_%C3%A9vacuations_dans_la/jmyndp3/?context=3; in French because it was on r/France).

It actually is much worse than it seems - I did a write up over on Mastodon to explain why and how (https://mastodon.social/@andrei_chiffa/110599724720727202). The TLDR is that cities taken by Wagner mercs will be hard to retake without leveling, all internal protection troops are either tied or were lost in Ukraine, and mercs themselves have nothing to loose and all the revenge to take.

I welcome russian infighting. Hope it makes it easier for Ukraine to retake Crimea.

my mind is so blown. i didn’t have wagner turning against russia on my bingo card

If there's one thing I've learned from my history classes it's that power vacuums (or even perceived power vacuums) and the ensuing instability always end well for everyone involved....

/s

Can someone please explain what's going on ? I am out of the loop. I know Wagner was fighting for Russia but what happened now?

Ukrainian army called ...they need fresh supplies of popcorn...

This could definitely be a powder keg moment in some way.

This became a possibility the moment Prigo started making threats towards government officials. As soon as that happened, and Russia did not recall and disband the group, a rebellion became an eventuality (what mercenary is going to accept execution from a state he is propping up).

I doubt it'll be successful, but it is a huge blow to Russia.

People are tired of this war. Putin wanted to secure food reserves and have an open access sea port for his military; however he wasn't honest as to his reasons why; understandably so. Given this the Russian public doesn't see the actual geopolitical value of the conflict. This was inevitable. If Russia couldn't play nice with the rest of the world as their money mostly comes from oil and gas; which we are moving away from. Let them pay for their crimes.

I for one welcome their new Military overlords.

If they would merely keep Rostov, a city with one million citizens, this would already be an enormous problem for Russia. But the Wagner group is going all-out, and I strongly doubt whether they'll be able to oust the Russian government.

If Kiev has been saving something up for a special occasion, this occasion is starting to look pretty special.

The Ukraine counter-offensive sure is effective.

Wagner switching sides was not on my bingo card