Amid strife with Kremlin, Wagner Group mercenaries enter Russian city, its chief says

The owner of the Wagner Group, a private mercenary army, made his most direct challenge to the Kremlin yet on Friday, calling for an armed rebellion to remove Russia's defense minister in the midst of conflict with the Kremlin. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the group's leader, was the immediate target of the security forces' immediate call for his arrest.

Security was increased in Moscow and Rostov-on-Don, which is home to the Russian military headquarters for the southern region and also oversees the fighting in Ukraine, as a sign of how seriously the Kremlin was taking the threat.

As Kyiv's forces probed Russian defenses in the early stages of a counteroffensive, it appeared likely that the confrontation would further impede Moscow's war effort, despite the fact that the confrontation's outcome was still unknown.

Early on Saturday, Prigozhin claimed that his troops had crossed into Russia from Ukraine and reached Rostov. He said that his troops "aren't fighting against children" and faced no resistance from young conscripts at checkpoints.

"But we will destroy anyone who stands in our way," he said in one of a number of irate videos and audio recordings that began to be shared on social media late on Friday. We are proceeding and will continue until the very end."

He asserted that the head of the General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, mixed warplanes to strike Wagner's guards, which were driving close by customary vehicles. In addition, Prigozhin claimed that his forces shot down a Russian military helicopter that had fired on a civilian convoy. However, no independent verification was available.

Adam Hodge, a spokesperson for the United States National Security Council, provided CBS News with the following statement: "We are monitoring the situation and will be consulting with allies and partners on these developments." Hodge went on to say that President Biden had been informed about the circumstance.

The senators stated, "We are closely monitoring what appears to be a significant internal conflict among Russian forces." In a statement, they said, "Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, the respective chairs and vice chairs of the Senate Intelligence Committee." As this situation develops, we are in contact with the Administration and intelligence community."

Overnight, the Kremlin tightened security at key facilities across the nation, as reported by CBS News correspondent Ian Lee. Putin has issued anti-terror measures in several regions and granted law enforcement broad legal powers since Moscow woke up to a state of emergency.

Lee likewise detailed that there are reports that Wagner troops have held onto a second city most of the way to Moscow. 

In addition, despite Prigozhin's assertions that Wagner convoys had entered Rostov-on-Don, social media in Russia had not yet provided any evidence to support this claim. Heavy trucks were seen obstructing highways that led to the city, and armored vehicles and long convoys of National Guard trucks were seen on a road outside of Rostov-on-Don.

According to Prigozhin, Gerasimov ordered the firing of rockets, helicopter gunships, and artillery on Wagner field camps in Ukraine following a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in which they decided to eliminate Wagner.

Friday, Prigozhin called for an armed uprising against Shoigu. Prigozhin was the subject of an immediate criminal investigation by the security services.

In a series of irate videos and audio recordings, Prigozhin claimed that Shoigu had ordered a rocket strike on Wagner's field camps in Ukraine, where his Russian troops are fighting, on Friday.

Prigozhin urged the army not to resist and stated that his troops would now punish Shoigu through an armed rebellion.

Prigozhin declared, "This is not a military coup, but a march of justice."

He would be investigated on charges of calling for an armed rebellion, according to the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which is part of the Federal Security Services. According to Tass, the state news agency, President Vladimir Putin was informed.

According to Tass, a later statement made by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia's prosecutor general, Igor Krasnov, had discussed the possibility of bringing a criminal case against Prigozhin with Putin.

In Russia's war in Ukraine, Wagner's forces successfully captured Bakhmut, the city where the bloodiest and longest battles have taken place. Prigozhin has frequently criticized Russia's military leadership, claiming that it has deprived his troops of weapons and ammunition and is incompetent. However, his claims and calls for an armed rebellion on Friday presented a more direct challenge.

Prigozhin, whose dispute with the Russian Defense Ministry dates back many years, refused to comply with the Defense Ministry's requirement that all military contractors sign contracts with it prior to July 1.

He said in a statement late on Friday that he was willing to work with the Defense Ministry to reach an agreement, but "they have treacherously cheated us."

He stated, "Today they carried out a rocket strike on our rear camps, and a large number of our comrades died."

According to Prigozhin, Shoigu personally went to the Russian military headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don in the south to direct the attack on Wagner and then "cowardly" fled.

In reference to Shoigu, he stated, "This scum will be stopped."

He yelled, "The evil embodied by the country's military leadership must be stopped," urging the army to not stand in the way of Wagner's efforts to "restore justice."

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, urged other nations to heed warnings that Russia may be planning to attack an occupied nuclear power plant to cause a radiation disaster in other developments in the Ukraine war.

International representatives were briefed by members of his government regarding the potential threat to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which has had its six reactors shut down for months. According to Zelenskyy, he anticipated that other nations would "give appropriate signals and exert pressure" on Moscow.

"Our tenet is straightforward: The occupier's preparations must be known to the entire world. "Zelenskyy stated late on Thursday that "everyone who knows must act." The world has enough power to stop any radiation from happening, let alone a nuclear disaster.

The spokesperson for the Kremlin has denied that Russian forces pose a threat to the plant.

Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine last year and seized the plant, Europe's largest nuclear power station, there has been concern about the possibility of a radiation release that could harm people's lives. The head of the United Nations agency for atomic energy tried unsuccessfully for months to negotiate the creation of a safety perimeter to protect the facility from repeated shelling in nearby areas.

During a Ukrainian counteroffensive that began this month in Zaporizhzhia province, where the namesake plant is located, and in a part of Donetsk province that is adjacent, the International Atomic Energy Agency stated on Thursday that "the military situation has become increasingly tense."

Experts have warned that a radiation release could still occur if the system that keeps the cores of the six reactors and spent nuclear fuel cool loses power or water, despite the fact that the final of the plant's six reactors was shut down last fall to reduce the likelihood of a meltdown.

Russia and Ukraine have traded blame over which side was making the plant more of a threat over the course of months of fighting. On Friday, IAEA Chief General Rafael Mariano Grossi met with the top of the Russian state atomic enterprise Rosatom in the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia to talk about the circumstances at the plant. Rosatom chief Alexey Likachev and different authorities "accentuated that they presently anticipate explicit strides" from the U.N. organization to forestall Ukrainian assaults on the plant and its nearby domain, said a proclamation from the Russian partnership, whose divisions construct and work thermal energy stations.

Ukrainian officials made the accusation earlier this week that Russia was mining the cooling system of the plant. The plant was already in danger after a dam collapsed earlier this week and drew water from a reservoir that the power station uses.

Gov. Yuriy Malashko reported on Friday that Russian shelling had killed two people in the past day elsewhere in the southern Zaporizhzhia province. In addition, three people were killed in a Russian attack on a transportation company in the capital of the Kherson province, according to Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin.

According to the air force, Russia also launched 13 cruise missiles overnight at a military airfield in the western Khmelnytskyi province, but all of them were intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses. Officials appointed by Russia said that Ukrainian missiles had damaged a bridge that is a crucial supply route to occupied parts of southern Ukraine. This led to the attack. The Russians had constructed a pontoon bridge as a bypass, as evidenced by photographs. Henichesk's striking Russian soldiers were said to be hiding in an adjacent former wine factory, according to Ukrainian authorities. The attack, according to Tass, Russia's state news agency, resulted in two deaths.

According to the air force, Russia's air-launched Kh-101 and Kh-555 missiles were launched from the Caspian Sea. It did not specify the targeted airfield, but Ukraine has an air base close to Starokostiantyniv in the Khmelnytskyi region.

Five years ago, air force personnel from the United States, Ukraine, and seven European nations participated in a training exercise at the base, which is home to fighter jets and bombers. It has previously been attacked by Russia, including just recently.

Friday, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar stated that Russia has intensified its efforts to gain ground in the east and increased its defense forces in southern Ukraine in response to the initial counteroffensive. Maliar stated to Ukrainian television when he was asked if the initial attacks by the Ukrainian military set the stage for a larger assault: The main fight and events have not yet occurred. Indeed, some reserves will be utilized later."

In Zaporizhzhia province, one of four regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last year, Ukrainian forces have only made incremental gains thus far. Putin has stated that he will protect the areas as Russian territory.

According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine is attempting to drive Russian troops out of those areas and the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014 and is using as a staging area and supply route in the 16-month-old conflict. Ukrainian forces may attempt to breach Russia's land bridge to Crimea and reach two occupied port cities on the Sea of Azov if the counteroffensive breaks through the Russian defenses in the south.