On June 23, 2023, the leader of the paramilitary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had enough.
After several months of bloody war on the front in Ukraine with very little progress as a result, patience with the Russian military leadership, and in particular the former Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, ran out.
On the brightest day of last year, the Wagner group turned and started marching towards Moscow. Early in the morning of June 24, they crossed the border and entered and took control of the Russian city of Rostov-na-Donu.
Biggest threat to Putin
The march later continued towards the Russian capital Moscow, but was abruptly called off after an agreement with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The incident is described as the biggest threat to Vladimir Putin during his time in power. Despite that, Prigozhin expressed several times that the group had no intention of overthrowing power in the Kremlin.
In the days following the march, not a word was heard from the Russian president, until he appeared in a televised speech and gave the Wagner soldiers an ultimatum: join the Russian army or go to Belarus.
Died in plane crash
For a period, it was relatively unknown what happened to the Wagner leader.
On the day two months after the beginning of the uprising, the news came – a plane with ten people on board had crashed outside Moscow. On board the plane were Prigozhin and several prominent figures within the Wagner group.
The group has claimed that the plane was shot down by the Russian military, something the military has consistently denied.
Suspicions that the Kremlin was behind Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death have also been dismissed. Putin has paid tribute to Prigozhin after his death, calling him a “talented businessman” who made “serious mistakes”.