Officials were careful in their early assessments, but believe the recent action could be a game-changer.
Officials across NATO are scrambling to make sense of the fast-moving events inside Russia, as the Wagner Group’s mercenary fighters take more territory on what appears to be a march north toward Moscow.
The shocking takeover early Saturday of the southern Russian city of Rostov by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner fighters has set the stage for a larger military clash between his battle-hardened forces and the Russian military, which has not shown up in force as of Saturday. No NATO government official contacted over the past day was willing to offer a deep assessment of the crisis, as the first meetings were taking place throughout Saturday to share intelligence and plan any responses. A spokesperson for NATO said simply “we are monitoring the situation.”
Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, the chief of Ukraine’s General Staff, said he held a phone call with U.S. Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley. Nausėda, the Lithuanian president, noted that leaders attending next month’s NATO meeting in Vilnius will need to stay nimble as the situation progresses.
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