Vladimir Putin reportedly flees Moscow on presidential plane as Wagner forces advance

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly fled Moscow in his plane on Saturday while the Wagner Group’s mercenary forces are advancing towards Moscow.

Putin was seen flying from Moscow to St Petersburg, according to Flight Radar, before disappearing from the radar, The New York Post reports. 

The spokesperson for the Russian president however has come out and said that Putin has not fled the capital and “is working at the Kremlin.”

According to The Associated Press, Wagner reportedly has moved through Voronezh, roughly 385 miles from Moscow.

Moscow has issued an arrest warrant for the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, accusing him of inciting an armed rebellion against the government.

Prigozhin has long feuded with the Ministry of Defense over its prosecution of the war in Ukraine. On Friday night, tensions reached a boiling point as Prigozhin announced he had withdrawn his forces from the front and entered Russia via Rostov, CNN reported. He accused the Kremlin of attacking his men, which the government has strongly denied.

Russia has opened a criminal case into the mercenary leader for inciting an armed rebellion.