Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseev, First Deputy Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, and Sergei Surovikin, Commander of the Joint Group of Forces in the Special Military Operation zone, addressed the fighters and commanders of the Wagner PMC.

Joint Group of Forces Commander Surovikin said that the Wagner group needed to stop the columns and return them to their permanent deployment points. “Before it’s too late, and is necessary and must be done, obey the will and order of the popularly elected President of the Russian Federation, stop the columns, return them to their permanent deployment points and concentration areas, solve all problems only by peaceful means under the leadership of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation [Putin]," Surovikin's appeal says.

“What is happening now is a glaring fact, which I can only describe as insanity. Now our country is in a most difficult situation, when the entire Western world has taken up arms against us, when ammunition for weapons is coming from all over the world. What you have now begun to carry out according to someone's provocative plan will lead to huge losses,” Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseev said. He also noted that only Russian President Vladimir Putin has the right to appoint the highest leadership of the Armed Forces, and asked the fighters and commanders of PMC Wagner not to encroach on his power.