Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu appears in video for first time since Wagner mutiny
- Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu shown on Russian TV after failed mutiny by Wagner forces this weekend
- Shoigu was one of the main targets of Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led the brief rebellion
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was shown speaking to troops in a video released by his ministry on Monday, his first known appearance in public since a mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group.
There was no sound on the video and it was not immediately clear where or when the visit had taken place.
Shoigu was shown flying in an aircraft with a colleague and hearing reports at a command post run by Russia’s Zapad (West) military grouping.
The Defence Ministry TV channel, Zvezda, said Shoigu, who looked physically unharmed and calm, had listened to a report by Colonel General Yevgeny Nikiforov, the group’s commander, about the current situation on the front lines in Ukraine.
In his mutiny during which he seized control of Russia’s military headquarters in southern Russia, renegade Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had demanded that Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the Chief of the General Staff, be handed over to him so that he could “restore justice”.