Bomb craters, shelled homes, shocked residents. The rebellion of a private army has left scars far from the Ukraine front lines in Russia’s farming heartland.
Last weekend, a convoy of mercenaries sped along the M4 highway from southern Russia toward Moscow with the aim of toppling the country’s military leaders.
In unexplained circumstances, there were clashes with regular Russian forces in Russia’s Voronezh region, part of the Black Earth belt known for its fertile soil.
Photo: AFP
“We heard a plane... It circled and circled, then a whistle and a boom. Then a second one,” said Lyubov, a hospital nurse in the town of Anna.
“Some people’s windows were blown out and the plaster fell from the ceiling in our house outside the town. Everyone was scared,” Lyubov, 65, said as she waited for a bus in the rain.
Just outside the village, bomb craters surrounded by scorched trees were on the side of the road, where the guardrail had been smashed through.
Private military company Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had said that his group downed several Russian military aircraft, and that two of his men were killed and several injured in clashes.
Prigozhin is in exile in Belarus after on Saturday striking a deal with the Kremlin to end his 24-hour insurrection, while the Russian government is at pains to show that the crisis is over.
There is still no official death toll or any explanation of what happened in those tense hours.
In the village of Yelizavetovka in another part of the Voronezh region, 19 homes were damaged by fighting.
“There was a firefight and shelling. Thank God it was in the early morning and everyone was sleeping,” one village resident said, asking not to be named.
A local government official asked reporters to leave the village, saying that residents were “too shaken” to speak, and she did not want a “negative” portrayal of the area.
In the regional capital, Voronezh, a fuel depot caught fire during the insurrection.
A video that circulated on social media showed a helicopter flying overhead as the depot’s reservoirs burned and what appeared to be missiles flew past.
The burnt oil reservoirs could be seen along one of the city’s main thoroughfares next to a shopping center.
Local residents spoke of their fear over what happened and many said they had stayed in their homes for the duration.
Several said they were relieved the crisis had been brought to a swift end and praised the Kremlin’s actions.
“We don’t need a war. We don’t need anything here,” Lyubov said.
“I hope to God everything will be okay. I think it will be because we have Putin. I respect him. I just adore him,” she said.
Others said they did not feel safe, and some expressed support for Prigozhin and the mutineers.
Once seen as a Kremlin ally, Prigozhin before his mutiny had become increasingly critical of Russia’s high command and the conduct of the campaign in Ukraine where his forces spearheaded many assaults.
“He’s right. Everyone supports him, but they’re too scared to say it,” one Voronezh resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity, like many who expressed dissenting views.
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