Volodymyr Zelensky said he is ‘sure’ Vladimir Putin fled Moscow in the face of the Wagner Group’s march on the Russian capital.

In his nightly address posted on Telegram, the Ukrainian president wrote: ‘Today the world saw that the masters of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Just complete chaos.’

Zelensky went on: ‘The man from the Kremlin is obviously very afraid and probably hiding somewhere, not showing himself. I am sure that he is no longer in Moscow. 

‘He knows what he is afraid of, because he himself created this threat. All evil, all losses, all hatred – he spreads it himself.’

Moscow’s Red Square was shut down on Saturday and armoured checkpoints were set up on its southern edge as the capital braced for the arrival of the Wagner Group private army.

Putin early vowed to crush the rebellion, led by his onetime ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose forces have already seized a key military facility in southern Russia.

The uprising poses the most serious threat to Putin’s leadership in decades.

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In a televised speech to the nation, he called it a ‘betrayal’ and ‘treason.’

‘All those who prepared the rebellion will suffer inevitable punishment,’ Putin said. ‘The armed forces and other government agencies have received the necessary orders.’

Authorities declared a ‘counterterrorist regime’ in the capital and its surrounding region, enhancing security and restricting some movement.

On the southern outskirts, troops erected checkpoints, arranged sandbags and set up machine guns.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin warned that traffic could be restricted in parts of the capital. He declared Monday a non-working day for most residents.

Crews also dug up sections of highways to slow the march of the Wagner mercenary army. Access to Red Square was closed, two major museums were evacuated and a park was shut.

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Prigozhin’s private army appeared to control the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a city 660 miles south of Moscow that runs Russian operations in Ukraine, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.

Wagner troops and equipment also were in Lipetsk province, about 225 miles south of Moscow, where authorities ‘are taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety of the population’, said regional Governor Igor Artamonov, via Telegram. He did not elaborate.

The dramatic developments came exactly 16 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s largest conflict since World War II.

Ukrainians hoped the Russian infighting would create opportunities for its army to take back territory seized by Russian forces.

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