Rostov governor calls reports of residents welcoming Wagner Group fighters during rebellion a ‘deliberate story’ pushed by mercenaries
Vasily Golubev, the governor of Russia’s Rostov region, whose capital city was briefly captured by Wagner Group forces on June 24, said Friday that he’s skeptical of reports that city residents supported the mercenaries.
“I think [those accounts] are insinuations from the Wagner fighters themselves. Because as far as I know, not all of them were wearing their combat uniforms when they were in the city,” he told a journalist from Kommersant. “That’s why [there were] those flags, and the hugs, too. It’s a deliberate story.”
Golubev declined to answer a question about why it was “so easy” for Wagner Group’s convoys to enter Rostov-on-Don and capture the Southern Military District's headquarters.
During Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion, Rostov-on-Don residents took photos with Wagner Group fighters. When the mercenaries left the city, residents appeared to give them a hero’s farewell.
