On June 23, 2023, the owner of the Wagner private military company claimed that the Russian military fired at their positions in the Luhansk region. Prigozhin announced that in response, 25 thousand militants started the “March of Justice” against the military leadership of the Russian Federation – Sergei Shoigu, Defense Minister, and Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

He promised to destroy everyone who would interfere with his actions. Prigozhin claimed that he would kill security officials who would set up checkpoints and shoot down aircraft that would act against mercenaries.

The Russian state qualified such actions as an armed rebellion. The FSS of the Russian Federation opened a criminal investigation against Prigozhin. The next day, Russian President Putin gave the order to neutralize the Wagner PMC mercenaries.

Militarnyi decided to compile its own chronology of events, collect data on losses on both sides and analyze their successes and miscalculations.

Rostov-for-Day

The PMC Wagner mercenaries left late at night on June 23 and entered the Rostov region of Russia from the occupied Luhansk region the very next day. According to Prigozhin’s statement, at about 3:00 am, during the movement, one of the convoys on the march was attacked by a Russian Mi-35 helicopter. It was immediately shot down.

No earlier than 6 a.m., mercenaries entered the outskirts of the regional center. The convoys included tanks, APCs, armored vehicles, trucks, and cars.

The equipment drove into the city past barricades from buses, which blocked the road at night. The footage captures riot police soldiers of the special forces of the Russian Ministry of the Interior passively watching the passage of equipment at one of the gas stations.

A convoy of armored vehicles reached the city center unopposed. Fighters with white and red identification armbands took up defense on the streets around the headquarters of the Southern Military District. The armed detachments also surrounded the buildings of the main departments of the FSS and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Rostov region.

The local residents positively greeted the mercenaries, despite having seen the official statements of the authorities about the rebellion in the news.

Around 7:30 a.m., Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that all security forces objects in Rostov, including the headquarters of the Southern Military District of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Millerovo military air base, were under their control.

The militants did not send a separate convoy to the military air base. They captured it by the forces of the garrison there. Since mid-2022, this facility has been jointly used by the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Wagner PMC pilots. Their Su-24Мs and Su-25s were taking off from here.

Around 8 a.m., Telegram channels controlled by Prigozhin shared a video of his conversation with generals from GRU and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation at the headquarters of the Southern Military District. Prigozhin issued an ultimatum: if Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Valery Gerasimov would not come to him, the mercenaries would block Rostov and go to Moscow.

March to Moscow

While one group “took” Rostov, the other one crossed the Ukrainian-Russian border in the north. Mercenaries did not meet any resistance at the Buhaevka border crossing in the Voronezh region. 180 security officials dutifully lined up in front of the PMC Wagner mercenaries without weapons.

The group that was moving on Moscow could have actually numbered about 5,000 fighters. It was led by Dmitry Utkin, senior Wagner PMC officer. The convoy did not try to seize the cities through which it passed. It, however, left behind rearguards to protect the rear. The convoy was covered by Pantsir-S1 and Strela-10 air defense systems.

A convoy entering from the Luhansk region united with part of the Wagner forces that left occupied Rostov in the Boguchar area on the М4 highway.

Voronezh

60 kilometers to Voronezh on the federal highway М-4 “Don”, the convoy from Rostov encountered a series of barricades made of municipal machinery which were trying to block the passage. However, it was cleared with heavy armor.

Around 10:40 a.m., a convoy of mercenaries was attacked by Russian combat aviation near the village of Rogachevka. Aircraft bombs were dropped on the highway, which was carrying a heavy flow of military and civilian vehicles.

Not earlier than 11:30 a.m., local residents spotted Wagner PMC detachments advancing on the southeastern outskirts of Voronezh, near the local institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Brief clashes were reported between the advanced groups of Wagner PMC and the Rosgvardiya units. The Rosgvardiya fled, leaving weapons and several APCs behind. A Wagner PMC convoy under the command of Dmitry Utkin continued moving toward Moscow.

The fighting was also accompanied by the air raids of federal forces. At least one Ка-52 attack helicopter was firing at a convoy of mercenaries at the М-4 and Dimitriev Street intersection in Voronezh with unguided missiles. Several mercenary vehicles were hit as a result of the strike.

After the Russian military aviation attack in Voronezh, the mercenaries, in turn, tried to shoot down the Ка-52 helicopter. The Strela-10 SAM deployed in the combat position launched missiles, but thanks to the onboard EW systems, it managed to evade them.

At about 12:30 p.m., one of the fuel bunkers of the local Voronezh oil depot was hit as a result of hostilities and exploded. According to one version, it was hit by an anti-aircraft missile launched by Wagner PMC. As of 2:00 p.m., the firefighting operations at the oil depot were still underway, with a 5,000-cubic meter fuel tank still on fire.

As a result of another missile launch from an unknown SAM, the helicopter was shot down. Two crew members were killed.

The Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation lost an Il-22М11 airborne command post during the passage of the Voronezh region.

A video capturing the fall of a burning aircraft was published on social media. Russian propagandist Ilya Tumanov revealed the tail number of the lost aircraft to be RA-75917.

The warplane presumably returned after performing a combat mission in the occupied territories of Ukraine and was mistakenly recognized by the Wagner PMC as one of the attack aircraft and was shot down by the Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft system on the march.

According to Russian propagandists, Prigozhin later explained the strike on the Il-22M11 by saying that the “stupid anti-aircraft officer” was shooting down everything that was taking off in the area of the Wagner PMC movement.

It is reported that during the march, a small group of vehicles separated in the direction of Borisoglebsk, but its further actions were difficult to track. This created speculation about the intention of the mercenaries to seize nuclear ammunition stored in the Voronezh-45 military unit.

Lipetsk

As of 1 p.m., the advance convoy of the Wagner mercenaries successfully crossed the administrative border and entered the territory of the Lipetsk region.

In the region, convoys stopped only to pass through the obstacles posed by local authorities. By order of the federal government, it blocked roads with equipment and dug out the roads.

Defense of Moscow

The Wagner PMC convoys managed to march through the Lipetsk region without obstacles. The Tula region was also passed without resistance, which was already followed by the Moscow region.

According to Viktor Zolotov, the Rosgvardiya commander, this was possible because all available forces were pulled to the Moscow region.

The main line of defense of Moscow was supposed to be the Oka River in the south of the Moscow region in the area of Kolomna, Kashira, and Serpukhov. The banks of the river in that area are connected by five bridges: two large highways on the way of the М2 and М-4 routes, and three smaller ones through Serpukhov and Kashira.

In the capital itself, preparations for the defense had started since the evening of June 23. All available law enforcement agency units and armored vehicles were pulled into the city. Checkpoints with fire positions were equipped at the city entrances. The passage was blocked by trucks on the Moscow Ring Road.

Also, in connection with defense preparations, traffic on the Moscow River was completely stopped, and the operation of marinas was restricted. The Rosgvardiya units took up positions along the Kashirsky highway at the entrance to Moscow.

However, Wagner PMC never arrived at this hastily formed defensive line. The last site where they were spotted was the city of Efremov, Tula region, located about 300 km from Moscow.

According to Prigozhin, at about 8 p.m., he turned away the convoy located 200 kilometers away from Moscow. In total, Wagner PMC passed 780 kilometers within less than a day.

Losses

During the first day of the civil war, Russia lost seven aircraft, namely, three Mi-8MTPR-1 EW helicopters, three Mi-35 attack helicopters, Ка-52, Mi-28, along with Il-22М11 reconnaissance and command aircraft. At least 13 people from the aircraft crew were killed, and several crew members were injured.

There is also reliable information about the capture of two armored vehicles from the federal forces: one Tiger-M and one KamAZ-435029.

During the air strikes, the Wagner PMC evidently lost an АМN-590951 armored vehicle, two UAZ pickups with DShK machine guns, and some number of army trucks and civilian trucks. The number of casualties among the personnel is not disclosed.

Tactics

The main advantages that mercenaries gained during the raid on Moscow were its suddenness, audacity, and speed. The fact that all combat-ready units of the Russian Armed Forces were in Ukraine at the front line at the time of the start of the conflict also helped the mercenaries. Wagner units, which withdrew from the permanent positions and left for the capital in an organized manner, came as a real shock to the authorities, who could not make the necessary decisions for a long time except to bring security forces under the walls of the Kremlin.

The march of a large number of units is one of the most difficult operations due to the need for proper interaction and coordination. The command of the private military company showed a high level of professionalism – a level higher than that demonstrated by the regular Russian army on February 24, 2022.

It is worth noting that the mercenaries did not move in one single column of several kilometers, but divided their forces into several groups that moved at intervals. The vehicles in the convoys often moved at long distances and were covered by Pantsir-S1 SAM.

During the movement, the military also put forward road reconnaissance units, as well as rearguard teams that covered the main forces. All this, as a whole, helped to keep losses of equipment during attacks to a minimum.

Reaction of the feds

It should be noted that the Russian army and internal military force were unprepared for such situations and potential breakthroughs of enemy forces into the operational space. In the deep rear of Russia, there were simply no forces to stop enemy equipment. Units of border guards and the Rosgvardiya were not ready to face the confrontation and massively ignored the movement of the enemy or even laid down their weapons.

It is also reported that the Russian army aviation pilots massively refused to carry out combat missions against mercenaries, which subsequently led to a downed Mi-35 helicopter being piloted by a high-rank officer.

The events described above are the result of complex social and political processes in the structure of the Russian Federation, which show significant degradation of the country’s institutions, which manifested itself as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war.