A week on from the dramatic mutiny by Wagner forces, residents in Rostov-on-Don – the city the mercenary troops seized – have been reflecting on the events that rocked Russia.
In just 24 hours, the leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged an insurrection, sending troops into the city of a million people and further on towards Moscow.
Due to the current laws against criticising the so-called “special military operation” in Russia, the BBC has chosen to protect the identities of the citizens who spoke to us.
One Rostov-on-Don local – who the BBC is calling Vadim – described the moment he spotted Wagner forces in the city.
“I had to leave my home that day just to pop out and get something from the shop. At about ten or eleven, I saw these armed people that had closed off the road. They were checking cars, and asking people for documents but passers-by were simply allowed to carry on walking.
When Vadim got home, he started receiving calls from worried friends asking him if he was okay. He decided to stay at home for the rest of the day.
“If I am to speak of the feelings I experienced that day, I suppose you could say I was alarmed and perhaps even scared. We knew that Prigozhin had planned to do something and Wagner is known for its crimes in various countries.
“The association that we have of Wagner killing someone with a sledgehammer caused me to be afraid,” he added.
Vadim says the war in Ukraine has changed the city completely. Its become more militarized and has a number of military hospitals and wounded people.
“The city is really quite close to the front and that’s how it feels.”
As Vadim sat at home in Rostov-on-Don, Anastasia was visiting Moscow from St Petersburg.
“We were checking the news together through the night and we woke up in the morning and there was even more news,” she said. “That was intense”.
Anastasia, also a pseudonym, was staying with a friend in the southwest of the city, where preparations for the arrival of Wagner forces had started. She said that the wasn’t frightened that the troops would overtake the capital. What made her anxious was the sheer uncertainty of the situation.
“All these things that seemed unreal previously, were beginning to happen. And it was completely unclear what was coming next. It was kind of scary, that uncertainty,” she recalled.
“When Prigozhin started his march to Moscow, we didn’t have any optimistic scenarios or what will happen. No one around me was happy about Prigozhin taking Moscow,” Anastasia said.
“All scenarios seemed pretty bad. And the only thing that kind of felt hopeful was that something seemed to be changing. Some factors were making it possible to change. And then it ended.”
