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Vladimir Putin has given another address inside the Kremlin complex on Tuesday whilst chairing a meeting of security forces, praising them for their work in stopping the Wagner Group rebellion. Speaking about the Russian pilots who died in the 24-hour mutiny, he says he "regrets" the losses, saying: "Our comrades perished defending the motherland". He also said that the Wagner mercenary group was entirely financed by the Russian state.

An armed mutiny, a betrayal, a knife in the back - and a visibly angry Vladimir Putin speaking after the tanks and armoured vehicles of the Wagner Group of soldiers - supposedly fighting on his behalf - seize the city of Rostov-on-Don and take control of military sites in an audacious act of rebellion. The man behind it all - former prisoner and billionaire catering boss turned mercenary, Yevgeny Prigozhin. He is denying it is a coup, instead, that it is a march for justice -prompted by his fury at how Moscow is running the war in Ukraine. But march or mutiny - what is the end game?

Here in Ukraine the battle against Russian forces goes on remorselessly. But in Russia it's the reverberations of yesterday's extraordinary events that are still being felt. President Putin is reported to have spoken again on the phone to President Lukashenko of neighbouring Belarus, who yesterday brokered the deal that saw Yevgeny Prigozhin order his Wagner group mercenaries back to base.

Last we heard he was banished to Belarus after abandoning his insurrection. But a few hours ago, the mercenary leader resurfaced - from an undisclosed location. In an 11-minute audio statement - he defended the uprising, saying “society demanded it”. But denied he intended to depose President Putin, saying he was acting to prevent his Wagner Mercenary group being disbanded. Yevgeny Priogozhin had proven, he said, there are “serious problems with security” across mother Russia. He called his seizure of Rostov-on-Don, and march on Moscow a “masterclass” in how Russia should have invaded Ukraine last year.