Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin demanded in a video posted on Saturday that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia's top general Valery Gerasimov come to meet him in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.
Prigozhin said in one video posted on social media by his own press service that he was now at the headquarters of the Southern Military District, which is in Rostov-on-Don.
In another video, posted by the pro-Wagner Telegram channel "Razgruzka Wagnera" ("Wagner's combat vest"), he was seen sitting between two senior generals, one of them Army Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseyev, who had earlier issued a video urging Prigozhin to reconsider his declared drive to oust the top brass.
"We have arrived here, we want to receive the chief of the general staff and Shoigu," Prigozhin said on the video. "Unless they come, we'll be here, we'll blockade the city of Rostov and head for Moscow."
The governor of southern Russia's Rostov region adjoining Ukraine told residents early on Saturday to remain calm and stay indoors.
"Law enforcement agencies are doing everything necessary to ensure the safety of residents of the area. I ask everyone to stay calm and not to leave home unless necessary," Vassily Golubev said in a message on his Telegram channel just before 4 a.m.
The deputy commander of Russia's Ukraine campaign, General Sergei Surovikin, told Wagner fighters to obey Russian President Vladimir Putin, accept Moscow's commanders and return to their bases. He said political deterioration would play into the hands of Russia's enemies.
"I urge you to stop," Surovikin said in a video posted on Telegram, his right hand resting on a rifle.
The standoff, many of the details of which remained unclear, looked like the biggest domestic crisis Putin has faced since he sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February last year.
