Defenseless Moscow, hidden corpses in Rostov, helpless Kadyrovites: 10 facts that became evident following Prigozhin’s rebellion

The Wagner PMC rebellion has revealed the vulnerability of Russian rear areas. The mercenaries first crossed the 'old' Russian-Ukrainian border (despite the formal annexation of the Luhansk region, there are still checkpoints), then took control of the Southern Military District headquarters (which also serves as the main command post for troop operations in Ukraine). They blockaded several administrative buildings in central Rostov-on-Don and nearly reached Moscow.

According to Evgeny Prigozhin, the advance units were 200 km away from the capital (although the northernmost point where the presence of the mercenaries was confirmed was the village of Krasnoye in the Lipetsk region, 380 km from the Moscow Ring Road). Overall, as Prigozhin stated, the Wagner forces covered 780 km in a day (although this figure seems somewhat exaggerated, they certainly covered at least 500 km). However, the Wagner fighters encountered little resistance almost everywhere, except for a couple of incidents at the border crossing and in the Voronezh region. Apparently, the uniformed agencies simply could not locate and promptly deploy any reasonably combat-ready army units equipped with heavy weaponry such as artillery and tanks.