In an extraordinary series of audio clips that he began to release late on Friday, Prigozhin had claimed that a Russian rocket attack had killed scores of his fighters, vowing to take “revenge” and “stop the evil brought by the military leadership of the country”. It was not possible to verify the footage. Video and images circulating on social media showed armed men on the streets of Rostov, skirting the regional police headquarters in the city on foot, as well as tanks positioned outside the headquarters of the SMD, which is key to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Soldiers have been killed, three, four times more than what it says in documents shown to the top (leadership).” “When they tell you that PMC Wagner interfered with work and that’s why something on the front collapsed … Things on the front collapsed not for this reason,” he said, addressing Russians. He said that planes taking part in the Ukraine offensive were taking off as normal from the airfield, which was under Wagner control, and asked Russians not to believe what they were told on state television.