Some 5,000 men are in Wagner convoy approaching Moscow

A convoy of mutinous Wagner fighters approaching the outskirts of Moscow by road contains about 5,000 men led by senior Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin, a source close to the leadership in the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Donetsk province said late on Saturday.

The source, who has proved reliable in the past, said Wagner chief Dmitry Prigozhin had fewer than 25,000 men at his disposal in total, and that around 5,000 of them were in Rostov-on-Don, the southern city key to Russia‘s war in Ukraine that Prigozhin said he had taken control of.

The source said Wagner’s plan for Moscow was to take up positions in a densely built-up area.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to crush the armed mutiny in what looked like the biggest domestic crisis Putin has faced since he ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine – which he called a “special military operation” – in February last year.

In a televised address, Putin said that “excessive ambitions and vested interests have led to treason”, and called the mutiny a “stab in the back”.

“It is a blow to Russia, to our people. And our actions to defend the Fatherland against such a threat will be harsh.”

“All those who deliberately stepped on the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed insurrection, who took the path of blackmail and terrorist methods, will suffer inevitable punishment, will answer both to the law and to our people,” Putin said.

Prigozhin had demanded that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff, whom he has pledged to oust over what he says is their disastrous leadership of the war against Ukraine, come to see him in Rostov, a city near the Ukrainian border that he said he had seized control of.

He had said he had 25,000 fighters who would “restore justice” and had alleged, without providing evidence, that the military had killed a huge number of fighters from his Wagner private militia in an air strike, something the defence ministry denied.

Prigozhin’s Wagner militia spearheaded the capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut last month, and he has has for months been openly accusing Shoigu and Gerasimov of incompetence and of denying Wagner ammunition and support.