Russia dismisses Ukraine’s claim Wagner fighters reached nuclear base

“The Kremlin has no such information and it looks like a new piece of fake news,” the Russian presidential spokesman said, commenting on the corresponding claim by Ukrainian Military Intelligence Head Kirill Budanov.

Budanov claimed in an interview with the news agency Reuters that Wagner fighters had allegedly reached a high-security facility but could not get inside.

Wagner fighters staged a mutiny attempt on June 23-25. The Telegram channel of Wagner private military company founder Yevgeny Prigozhin posted several audio records with his statements on the evening of June 23, in which he claimed that strikes had allegedly been delivered against his formations and accused the country’s military leadership of that. The Russian Defense Ministry dismissed this information as false.

Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov said that before the mutiny attempt Prigozhin refused to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry, following which he was notified that the Wagner group would no longer participate in the special military operation in Ukraine.

The units of the Wagner private military company that supported Prigozhin moved towards the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and Moscow. On the evening of June 24, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko held negotiations with Prigozhin, following which the Wagner fighters agreed to return to their field camps.

Later, the Kremlin announced that Prigozhin “will depart for Belarus” while Wagner fighters would escape persecution.