A presidential plane linked to Vladimir Putin flew north from Moscow towards Tver and switched off its transponder, according to multiple reports.
Other business jets were seen making an exodus from the capital towards St Petersburg.
Earlier there were reports from Ukrainian intelligence indicating Putin had left from Moscow by helicopter for his palace at Valdai, between Moscow and St Petersburg.
It comes as a sinister message posted on the Wagner Telegram channel on Saturday said: ‘Putin made the wrong choice. All the worse for him.
‘Soon we will have a new president.’
Sources close to Putin insisted he was working in the Kremlin – an unusual location for him except for short visits.
Putin’s presidential plane took off from Moscow to St. Petersburg, according to multiple reports
A sinister message posted on the Wagner Telegram channel on Saturday said: ‘Putin made the wrong choice. All the worse for him. Soon we will have a new president’
His spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied he had flown to St Petersburg on a TU-214PU aircraft from which he could launch a nuclear war.
Some social media users have noted that Putin’s plane – special aircraft II-96-300PU – – left Moscow at 14:16 and went north west, the FlightReader tracking service claimed.
Putin reportedly spends time at his residence in Lake Valdai, north-west of Moscow, and apparently does not permanently live in the capital.
There was also a claim from Telegram channel General SVR that Putin’s fiends ‘almost without exception’ were ‘preparing routes for relocation along with their relatives and friends’.
The wealthiest member of his government, deputy premier Denis Manturov, left the country for Turkey, said media We Can Explain citing flight records for his VIP Sukhoi Superjet which is equipped with ten beds.
Two weeks ago he was reported to have narrowly missed being hit with a UK-supplied Storm Shadow missile in Henichesk on the Sea of Azov, close to annexed Crimea.
New outlet Important Stories said a source had indicated Putin intended to ‘eliminate’ his former crony Yebvgeny Prigozhin.
A source said: ‘Putin doesn’t need a big shooting, so the number one task is to precisely eliminate Prigozhin and tear off the backbone of Wagner from him.’
Other Wagner figures would be offered an amnesty in return for coming to heel.
Moscow spy chief Sergey Naryshkin, head of Putin’s SVR foreign intelligence agency, claimed ‘it is clear that the attempt to rock Russian society, kindle the fire of a fratricidal civil war has failed’.
A source inside Wagner said that the mercenary troops were fighting Putin under threat of being executed if they disobeyed.
Founder of Wagner private mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin (centre) and Russian Wagner Group fighters are seen at the headquarters of the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces in Rostov-on-Don
A message posted on the Wagner Telegram channel today said: ‘Putin made the wrong choice. All the worse for him. Soon we will have a new president’
Wagner is notorious for using sledgehammers to execute ‘traitors’ in extrajudicial killings.
A source told gulagu.net: ‘Many in our assault squad are in shock….
‘We do not want to participate in this, but the rules of the [war] are now being applied here in Russia.
‘For refusing to comply with an order – [the punishment is] ‘zeroing’.
‘Two were already shot during preparations for the capture of the headquarters of the Defence Ministry in Rostov-on-Don.
‘And now we are outlaws in general – and these freaks [the Wagner commanders] threaten to nullify us, and t they will cover us on the track.
‘We are suicide bombers and there is almost no chance [of success].’
Prigozhin’s Wagner group said Russian leaders will be toppled and ‘soon we will have a new president’.
It comes as the Wagner group claimed to have shot down three Russian helicopters since its coup began – as they continue their vow to punish military leaders.
Shocking footage shows huge black plumes of smoke rising into the air on a field after what is claimed to be a helicopter was targeted and burst into flames.
The Wagner group claims to have shot down three Russian helicopters since its coup began
Russian president Vladimir Putin today branded Prigozhin’s military coup ‘treason’ as he addressed the Russian people, saying the military leader has ‘stabbed him in the back’
Russian forces appeared to confirm three of its attack helicopters had been shot down by Wagner.
It comes as an enraged Prigozhin declared on Friday that his 25,000-strong force is marching into Rostov-on-Don, and is ‘unopposed’.
Prigozhin made the move in fury at what he said was Moscow’s attack on his men, adding that he intends to march to Moscow to take on defense chiefs.
Other video footage emerging online today appeared to show a major oil depot engulfed in flames in Voronezh.
Videos show a helicopter flying over the depot before a huge explosion sends a fireball into the air.
Russian president Vladimir Putin today branded Prigozhin’s military coup ‘treason’ as he addressed the Russian people, saying the military leader has ‘stabbed him in the back’.
Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video released in the early hours of Saturday that his forces have reached the strategically important city of Rostov-on-Don
Prigozhin and his feared 25,000-strong Wagner militia have reportedly control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, saying they are ‘ready to die’ as they vow revenge for a military strike from Putin’s forces that the mercenary leader says killed some of his men.
All public events have been cancelled in the Russian capital as Vladimir Putin took to TV to say some Russians have been ‘tricked into a criminal adventure’ in a bid to affirm his shaky grip on power.
Putin described the group’s actions as a ‘criminal adventuristic campaign’ that is ‘equivalent to armed mutiny’, and urged those involved to cease any armed action, as the unit’s HQ in St Petersburg was reportedly raided today.
