According to Russian militia leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, its fighters have taken control of military facilities in the strategically critical Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. He asks senior military officials to meet with him in a stunning escalation of his feud with Moscow’s security apparatus over the handling of the war in Ukraine.
Prigozhin threatens to advance on Moscow if Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general Valery Gerasimov do not meet him in the city, where Russia’s Southern Military District is based.
Rostov-on-Don has about 1.1 million inhabitants, is an important river port and is located about 100 km from Ukraine and 1,046 km southwest of Moscow. The city is the center of the Southern Federal District of Russia and the headquarters of the Southern Military District of Russia. In Novocherkassk, about 24 km northeast of the regional center of the city, is the headquarters of the 8th Combined Guards Army.
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