Insubordinate Wagner leader Prigozhin demands military chiefs come to him

Rebellious Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin demanded in a video posted on Saturday that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia's top general Valery Gerasimov come to meet him in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don. Prigozhin said in one video posted on social media by his own press service that he was now at the headquarters of the Southern Military District, which is in Rostov-on-Don.

In another video, posted by the pro-Wagner Telegram channel "Razgruzka Wagnera" ("Wagner's combat vest"), he was seen sitting between two senior generals, one of them Army Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseyev, who had earlier issued a video urging Prigozhin to reconsider his declared drive to oust the top brass. "We have arrived here, we want to receive the chief of the general staff and Shoigu," Prigozhin said on the video. "Unless they come, we'll be here, we'll blockade the city of Rostov and head for Moscow."