warsaw civil war an evil that must be stopped fratricide a bug about to be squashedthe dramatic weekend rebellion by a mercenary warlord in russia that challenged russian president vladimir putin was punctuated by dramatic language from the key protagonists and some long silences as the world held its collective breath at the biggest challenge to putins rule of more than two decadesmercenary leader yevgeny prigozhin incited a rebellion against russias military leaders and sent his troops toward moscow but aborted his mutiny when belarusian president alexander lukashenko brokered an agreement that included exile for the warlord in belarus though shortlived the revolt rattled russian power circles tarnished putins aura of complete control and gave ukrainians hope that russian infighting could help themmany questions remain unanswered about how prigozhin managed to get 200 kilometers 125 miles from moscow with little resistance but a lot of words went back and forth here is a look at the past several days with a focus on comments by key figures prigozhin putin and lukashenko as well as by ukraine president volodymyr zelenskyy and us president joe bidenprigozhin had been hurling expletivelaced insults at russias military brass for months before escalating his confrontation on friday night in a significant challenge to the kremlin he argued that russias stated reasons for invading ukraine a threat from nato and neonazis were liesthe evil embodied by the countrys military leadership must be stopped the 62yearold shouted in a recorded statement released friday he said his forces werent seeking to challenge putin and other government structures but that justice in the armed forces will be restored and then justice will be restored in all of russiahis troops have carried out war atrocities in ukraine syria and africa and prigozhin doesnt oppose the war in ukraine he wants it prosecuted more effectively his forces boosted by tens of thousands of convicted felons conscripted from prisons have been some of the most effective in the 16month warfor months he accused the military brass of starving his forces of ammunition a video in may showed him standing in front of the bloodied bodies of his slain troops yelling obscenities at defense minister sergei shoigu and the chief of the general staff gen valery gerasimov calling them weak and incompetent and blaming them for the carnagethey came here as volunteers and they died to let you lounge in your mahogany offices prigozhin shouted you are sitting in your expensive clubs your children are enjoying good living and filming videos on youtube those who dont give us ammunition will be eaten alive in hellprigozhin who said he had 25000 troops to march towards moscow with him vowed that his troops would punish shoigu and urged the army not to offer resistance this is not a military coup but a march of justiceas prigozhins forces set up camp in rostovondon putin made a televised address to the nation saturday morning calling the uprising a stab in the back