Shoigu was seen in a video inspecting troops in Ukraine after armed rebels seized a Russian city and appeared to march unopposed toward Moscow over the weekend. It is unclear when the video was filmed. Shoigu is one of three influential Russian military leaders whose diverging interests prompted thousands of Wagner Group mercenaries to make their way from Ukraine to Russia before ending their advance on Saturday, less than 24 hours after its start to avoid bloodshed.
He is the first of these leaders to appear publicly since the revolt as Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. Also, a target of Prigozhin's has not been seen or heard from in public since the uprising. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also been absent from the public's view.
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The video released by the Defense Ministry Monday showed Shoigu flying in a helicopter before attending a meeting with military officers at an army headquarters in Ukraine. The video came after Prigozhin declared a "march of justice" on Friday to remove the defense minister and Gerasimov. The mercenaries captured the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday and marched toward Moscow when Prigozhin called to pull his troops back. The Kremlin said it made a deal in which the mercenary chief would move to Belarus, and he and his soldiers will receive an amnesty. The mutiny was the biggest challenge to Putin in more than 20 years.
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What would ultimately happen to Prigozhin and his forces remains unclear, and public details of the deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko are limited. It is unclear where Prigozhin has been since he drove out of Rostov-on-Don in an SUV on Saturday. Before the revolt, Prigozhin had criticized Shoigu and Gerasimov with expletive-ridden insults for months, slamming them for allegedly failing to provide his troops with enough ammunition during the battle for Bakhmut. Putin, Shoigu, and Gerasimov have not discussed the feud.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday when reporters asked if Putin still trusts Shoigu, that he was not aware of any changes in the attitude of the Russian leader. When asked if any changes in military leadership were discussed during negotiations with Prigozhin, Peskov said personnel changes were not up for discussion since they are the exclusive prerogative of Putin as the commander-in-chief. Prigozhin's feud with the top military brass dates back years to the Russian military intervention in Syria, and the rift escalated in recent months during the fight for Bakhmut.
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The U.S. had intelligence that Prigozhin was building up his forces near the Ukraine-Russia border for a while, which counters Prigozhin's claim that his rebellion was in response to a Russian attack on his field camps in Ukraine that he says killed many of his men. The Defense Ministry said it did not attack the bases. The Wagner forces' largely unopposed advance exposed vulnerabilities in Russia's security and military forces amid its war against Ukraine. During their weekend efforts, the mercenary soldiers reportedly downed several helicopters and a military communications plane.
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