Wagner Group fighters got near Voronezh-45 nuclear facility during June mutiny – Ukraine's Defence Intelligence
Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanov has said that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group intended to capture nuclear weapons stored at the Voronezh-45 nuclear facility during their recent mutiny in Russia.
Source: Budanov in an interview with Reuters
Details: According to Budanov, Wagner Group fighters had advanced further into Russia than was originally believed.
Reuters wrote that Wagner’s "surveillance trail goes cold about 100 km from the nuclear base, Voronezh-45".
Budanov, however, told Reuters that Wagner fighters got much further and reached the facility itself, aiming to seize Soviet-made small nuclear devices in order to "raise the stakes" in their mutiny.
When Wagner Group forces were advancing on Moscow, a separate convoy headed east to the Russian military base where nuclear weapons were kept, according to local residents and Internet reports.
"Because if you are prepared to fight until the last man standing, this is one of the facilities that significantly raises the stakes," Budanov said.
He added that only the doors of the nuclear facility separated Wagner fighters from nuclear weapons.
"The doors of the storage were closed and they didn't get into the technical section," he said.
Budanov said that Voronezh-45 houses small nuclear devices that can be carried in a backpack.
A source close to the Kremlin confirmed parts of Budanov’s account. A group of Wagner fighters "managed to get into a zone of special interest, as a result of which the Americans got agitated because nuclear munitions are stored there," this person said, without elaborating further.
US officials doubted Budanov’s account, saying they were not aware "that nuclear weapons or materials were at risk".
"Budanov is the first official to suggest Wagner fighters came close to acquiring nuclear weapons and further escalating an armed mutiny that has been widely interpreted as the biggest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin's power," Reuters wrote.
Reuters also said that Budanov did not offer evidence to corroborate his account and refused to say whether and to what extent Ukraine had discussed this incident with the US and other allies. He also did not explain why the Wagner fighters withdrew.
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 had therefore deployed 25,000 of his mercenaries "to restore justice".
- Prigozhin claimed that his forces had taken control of military facilities in Rostov-on-Don, seized military facilities in the Russian city of Voronezh, and were marching on Moscow. The Russian capital was preparing for defence.
- In an emergency address on 24 June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was "fighting for survival" and that there were attempts to "organise a rebellion" in the country. He then urgently left Moscow for his residence in Valdai.
- On the evening of 24 June, following a phone call with Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed president of the Republic of Belarus, Prigozhin said that his fighters were returning to their field camps. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that the criminal case against Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin would be closed and Prigozhin would "go to Belarus".
- On 27 June, Yevgeny Prigozhin's personal jet flew from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to Belarus, and another plane arrived there from St Petersburg.
- On the same day, the Russian Federal Security Service reported that the criminal case of the armed rebellion against Yevgeny Prigozhin had been closed.
- Meanwhile, Lukashenko claimed that Prigozhin was already in Belarus.
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