Russian general ‘who knew of Wagner mutiny’ is arrested

Sergey Surovikin, former supreme commander of Moscow’s forces in Ukraine, has not been seen in public since Saturday.

Members of the Wagner Group in Rostov-on-Don on Saturday. Picture: AFP

A senior Russian general close to Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has not been seen in public since Saturday.

The Moscow Times reported on Wednesday night that Sergey Surovikin, former supreme commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, had been arrested, citing claims by two unnamed sources in the Russian Ministry of Defence. The Times was not able to immediately verify the claims.

General Surovikin was the most senior officer to make a public appearance condemning the rebellion, calling on Wagner fighters to stand down. Troops under his air force command were the only ones to fire on the Wagner column as it approached Moscow.

Yet officials in Washington have claimed he knew of Mr Prigozhin’s plans to rebel against Russia’s military leadership, according to The New York Times. The pair were allies who had worked together in Syria and Ukraine, with the Wagner leader once praising General Surovikin as a “legendary figure”. The Kremlin has promised to punish those who orchestrated the coup while granting amnesty to the participants, raising the spectre of purges in Moscow.

US officials are also trying to confirm whether any senior figures in the Russian military establishment had supported Mr Prigozhin’s capture of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, in which Wagner forces shot down several Russian aircraft in a challenge to Moscow’s leadership.

Western intelligence officials told The Wall Street Journal they had also learnt of the plot. They said the ease with which Wagner took Rostov, a Russian military hub, suggested regular army officers had been complicit in the original plan. The original goal of the rebellion was to capture Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff, in Rostov, a source in Ukrainian military intelligence has told The Times.

But a leak from Mr Prigozhin’s camp alerted President Vladimir Putin’s security service, the FSB, forcing Wagner to act sooner than planned and to alter its ambitions.

General Viktor Zolotov, commander of the Russian National Guard, told media on Tuesday Moscow received advance warning of the mutiny. He said: “Specific leaks about preparations for a rebellion that would begin between June 22 and 25 were leaked from Prigozhin’s camp.”

The Ukrainian intelligence officer said after General Shoigu and General Gerasimov evaded capture, Wagner “corrected” its plan and advanced on Moscow as an alternative lever to bring Mr Putin to the negotiating table. The mercenaries’ rapid move towards the capital forced Mr Putin to agree terms put forward through Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was brought in after Mr Putin refused to speak to Mr Prigozhin, the officer said.

They added: “Lukashenko doesn’t want Wagner in Belarus, it’s a favour he’s done for Putin. Prigozhin wanted to speak to the head of state, but Putin didn’t want to speak with him. So Lukashenko became this face.”

Mr Prigozhin had been stockpiling ammunition, artillery, armoured vehicles and sophisticated air defence systems for days before his run on Rostov, believing swaths of the Russian regular army would join his troops, the Western sources said.

American officials told The New York Times the stockpiling had resulted in Mr Prigozhin informing some senior Russian officers of his plans, including General Surovikin. They added there were signs other Russian generals might have supported his attempt to replace the state’s military leadership by force.

●Teenage twin girls were among 11 people killed when a Russian missile struck a busy pizzeria in an area of eastern Ukraine where Mr Putin claims to be “protecting” ethnic Russians. Yuliya and Anna Aksenchenko, 14, had travelled from a nearby village to visit their mother in the city of Kramatorsk during the school holidays, and were in the Ria Pizza restaurant when it was obliterated by an Iskander missile. Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region, is less than 25km from the frontlines.

THE TIMES