Wagner’s forces shoot down a Russian helicopter as they push into the main city

The owner of the private military company Wagner claimed that his forces shot down a Russian military helicopter while his forces left Ukraine and captured a major Russian city.

Yevgeny Prigozhin has called for an armed insurrection aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister in direct defiance of the Kremlin.
Prigozhin claimed his forces had reached Rostov, saying they encountered no resistance from young recruits at checkpoints, adding that his forces “don’t fight children.”

“But we will destroy all who stand in our way,” he said. We are going forward and we will go until the end.”

He claimed that the Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, had deployed warplanes to strike Wagner’s convoys, which were driving alongside the regular vehicles.

“He doesn’t care who kills him,” Prigozhin said.

He added, “They have been killing their civilians for a year and a half instead of fighting the enemy.”

Prigozhin praised the Russian pilots for “refusing to carry out these criminal orders”.

He also claimed that a helicopter fired at a civilian convoy and was shot down by his forces.

Prigozhin gave no other details. This claim is one of many made by Wagner’s chief.
There is no confirmation of Prigozhin’s account of the air attack.