square was closed two major museums were evacuated and a park was shutprigozhins private army appeared to control the military headquarters in rostovondon a city 660 miles over 1000 kilometers south of moscow that runs russian operations in ukraine britains ministry of defense saidwagner troops and equipment also were in lipetsk province about 360 kilometers 225 miles south of moscow where authorities are taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety of the population said regional gov igor artamonov via telegram he did not elaboratethe dramatic developments came exactly 16 months after russia launched its fullscale invasion of ukraine europes largest conflict since world war ii that has killed tens of thousands displaced millions and reduced cities to rubbleukrainians hoped the russian infighting would create opportunities for its army to take back territory seized by russian forcesukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy said moscow was suffering fullscale weakness and that kyiv was protecting europe from the spread of russian evil and chaosthe federal security service or fsb called for prigozhins arrest friday night after he declared the armed rebellionprigozhin said his fighters would not surrender as we do not want the country to live on in corruption deceit and bureaucracyregarding the betrayal of the motherland the president was deeply mistaken we are patriots of our homeland he said in an audio message on his telegram channelprigozhins private army has been fighting alongside regular russian troops in ukraine his goals werent immediately clear but the rebellion marks an escalation in his struggle with russian military leaders whom he accused of botching the war in ukraine and hobbling his forces in the fieldthis is not a military coup but a march of justice prigozhin saidprigozhin said he had 25000 troops under his command and urged the army not to offer resistancehe posted video of himself at the military headquarters in rostovondon and claimed his forces had taken control of the airfield and other military facilities in the city other videos on social media showed military vehicles including tanks on the streetswe didnt kill a single person on our way prigozhin said in one of his several messages posted as the day went on adding that his forces seized the military headquarters without a single gunshot his claims could not be independently verified the russian authorities havent reported any casualties so far eitherthe rebellion comes as russia is fighting the toughest battle for its future putin said with the west piling sanctions on moscow and arming ukrainethe entire military economic and information machine of the west is waged against us putin saida muscovite who gave only his first name of khachik called the situation scary another man who didnt want to be identified at all denounced prigozhins move as a betrayal and said he supports the defense ministrystatecontrolled tv networks led their newscasts with putins statement and reported the tense situation in rostovondon some showed social media videos of residents denouncing wagner troopsbroadcasters also carried statements from top officials and lawmakers voicing support for putin