As Russia was spiraling into a civil war, martial law was declared on Friday night as the Wagner Group forces took control of Rostov-On-Don. Wagner Group financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin joined 25,000 of his troops in Russia and vowed to topple the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense for launching an attack on his troops the day before. Moscow went into high alert and Putin took to flight on his Doomsday plane. By Saturday morning the Wagner Group controlled all military sites in Rostov-On-Don and Prigozhin was in army headquarters. He did not interfere with the planes attacking Ukraine though from the airfield.
Wagner Forces then began their march toward Moscow reaching and occupying Voronezh by evening. Russian soldiers are surrendering without a fight. Russia suffered its greatest loss of air power in one day as Wagner Groups shot down seven helicopters and one plane transport. By the afternoon, Putin finally got on the air and charged Prigozhin as a traitor. Wagner group forces had reached within 205 miles (330 km) of Moscow, and some claimed even as close as 60 miles (95 km) before Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, fearing an uprising in his own country against him, worked out a deal to bring the coup to an end. Putin agreed to drop all charges against Prigozhin and to pardon all Wagner Group forces. In exchange, Prigozhin ordered his troops to return to their base and he would go under self-exile in Belarus.
Ukrainian forces took advantage of the chaos in Russia but pushing hard north and south of Bakhmut gaining some ground. And for the first time since the 2022 invasion was launched, Ukraine recaptured territory that they had lost to Russia back in 2014 near Krasnohorivka. They also gained some territory along the Zaporizhia Defense Line advancing towards Robotyne.
Russia launched their largest missile and drone attack on Kyiv this year in the early morning hours Saturday. At least 51 cruise missiles, two anti-aircraft missiles, and three drones were launched. All but twelve of the missiles and one drone were shot down. 20 missiles were intercepted alone over Kyiv, but falling debris still caused a fire in a 24-storey apartment building killing three people and injuring another eight. Nine missiles and three drones were shot down over Dnipropetrovsk region, but some missiles got through destroying several houses. A gas pipeline was destroyed in Kharkiv, but no casualties resulted. Missiles also struck Odesa, Sumy, and Poltava.
Ukraine organized a meeting in Denmark with several nations to begin putting together a peace proposal to end the war with Russia. What nations were invited and what was discussed has not yet been released.