The United States and other Western allies of Ukraine have asked Kyiv to refrain from bombing Russian territory during the armed insurrection of the private military company Wagner (PMC), CNN reported Monday, citing Western officials.
The official told CNN that the West fears that Moscow will view such actions by Ukraine as support for the rebels and attempts to challenge Russian sovereignty by Kyiv and its allies.
"Ukrainians were being cautioned by allies not to provoke the situation. Make hay of opportunities on Ukrainian territory but don't get drawn into internal matters or strike at offensive military assets inside of Russia," the official revealed, "You just don't want to feed into the narrative that this was initiative by us."
On the evening of June 23, several audio recordings were posted on the Telegram channel of the founder of Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) Yevgeny Prigozhin.
In particular, he claimed that his units had been attacked, which he blamed on the Russian army. The Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a criminal investigation into calls for armed insurrection.
In turn, the Russian Ministry of Defense criticized Chief Wagner's allegations of a strike on the "rear camps" of the PMC as fake news. The PMC units that supported Prigozhin headed for Rostov-on-Don and then headed toward Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a televised address to the nation on Saturday, called the Wagner Group's actions an armed rebellion and treason and vowed to crack down on the rebels.
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