Commentary
On June 24, mercenaries from the Wagner Group, the Kremlin’s private military company, abandoned the war in Ukraine and marched into Lipetsk, 225 miles south of Moscow, in an apparent insurrection.
“This is not a military coup, but a march of justice,” declared the defiant commander of the Wagner mercenary army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, as he ordered his men to turn on Moscow.
Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, the group has been involved in some of the heaviest fighting at the behest and ostensibly on the payroll of the Kremlin. In recent weeks, Prigozhin, who was an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been publicly critical of the war—criticism that culminated on June 23 with his call for not only Wagner mercenaries but also Russian Army soldiers to turn on Moscow….