Wagner Group Fighters Came Close To Russian Nuclear Base During Mutiny: Report

Wagner Mutiny: Western officials have maintained that Russia's nuclear stockpile was never at risk during the rebellion led by the Wagner paramilitary group.

A section of the Wagner paramilitary group, which led a brief mutiny against Kremlin last month, came within touching distance of a Russian Army base that holds nuclear weapons, Reuters reported. Interviews with local residents revealed that the Wagner fighters reached up to 100 km from the Russian nuclear base, Voronezh-45. However, it is not clear what happened next.

The revelation comes even as Western officials have repeatedly said that Russia's nuclear stockpile was never at risk during the rebellion, which ended after Belarus mediated a deal with Moscow. 

On June 24, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin directed his forces to march towards large Russian cities in a bid to remove several generals whom he accused of treason. However, Prigozhin later said his paramilitary group didn't march to overthrow President Vlamidir Putin's leadership.

READ | Wagner Mutiny: Russian President Putin Hails Military For Stopping 'Civil War'

Ukraine's head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, told Reuters that the Wagner fighters went further and reached the nuclear base in order to acquire small Soviet-era nuclear devices. Voronezh-45 is one of Russia's 12 "national-level storage facilities" for nuclear arms.

"Because if you are prepared to fight until the last man standing, this is one of the facilities that significantly raises the stakes," Budanov told Reuters in an exclusive interview.

However, the doors to the nuclear storage facility were closed and the Wagner fighters didn't get into the technical section, he further said.

A Wagner contingent "managed to get into a zone of special interest, as a result of which the Americans got agitated because nuclear munitions are stored there," a source close to the Kremlin told Reuters.

Another source in Russian occupied east Ukraine said the development led to panic in the Kremlin and provided impetus for a hastily negotiated end to the mutiny.

Reacting to the Reuters report, White House National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge said, "We had no indication at any point that nuclear weapons or materials were at risk."