On the war frontlines, Ukraine has been making advances and gaining momentum with its attacks in Bakhmut in Donetsk oblast, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

“As part of its broader counter-offensive, Ukraine has gained impetus in its assaults around Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast. In a multi-brigade operation, Ukrainian forces have made progress on both the northern and southern flanks of the town,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.

It added that there has been “little evidence that Russia maintains any significant ground forces operational level reserves which could be used to reinforce against the multiple threats it is now facing in widely separated sectors, from Bakhmut to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, over 200km away.”

The rebellion called on Moscow by Wagner chief fizzled quickly in part because Yevgeny Prigozhin did not have the backing he apparently expected from Russian security services, a former CIA director said.

“Clearly, Prigozhin lost his nerve,” retired US Gen David Petraeus, a former CIA director, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This rebellion, although it had some applause along the way, didn’t appear to be generating the kind of support that he had hoped it would,” he told CNN.

Locals appeared to agree. “It all ended perfectly well, thank God. With minimal casualties, I think. Good job,” said a resident, who agreed only to provide his first name, Sergei.

The Wagner soldiers used to be heroes to him, but not now, he said.

Threats endangering the families of Wagner leaders before Yevgeny Prigozhin made by Russian intelligence services caused the mercenary leader to stop his advance on Russia, the UK security sources said, reported The Telegraph.

In a separate assessment, it has been found that Wagner mercenary force had only 8,000 fighters for advancing on Moscow rather than 25,000 as claimed. They were also likely to face defeat in their attempt to take the Russian capital, the report added.

It has also been assessed that Vladimir Putin will now try to bring in Wagner group soldiers into the Russian military and pull out its former leaders, The Telegraph reported.

The group’s forces, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, were just 120 miles from Moscow before the rebellion was called off to avoid shedding Russian blood.

He has gone into exile in Belarus after a deal with Vladimir Putin’s government was brokered at the last minute.

The agreement will see charges against him of mounting an armed rebellion dropped.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has visited Russian troops involved in the military operation in Ukraine, the RIA news agency reported today.

This marks his first public appearance since the weekend mutiny by the Wagner paramilitary group amid speculation that the minister was placed in a strict house arrest.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had declared Shoigu as his rival, led mutineers in a short-lived weekend revolt and advanced on Moscow to remove what they called Russia’s corrupt and incompetent military leadership.

But they suddenly heading back to a Russia-held area of eastern Ukraine after a deal with the Kremlin brokered by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Australia is sending a fresh A$110m (£57.5m) package to Ukraine including 70 military vehicles as it continues to repel Russian invasion, prime minister Anthony Albanese said today.

The package will include 28 M113 armoured vehicles, 14 special operations vehicles, 28 medium trucks and 14 trailers.

“Australia is unwavering in our resolve to condemn and oppose Russia’s actions and to help Ukraine achieve victory,” the prime minister said.

He added that Australia will also extend duty-free access for goods imported from Ukraine for a further 12 months, to support its recovery and trade opportunities.

The new assistance package, Mr Albanese said, was prepared before the news of Wagner’s brief mutiny against Vladimir Putin regime emerged over the weekend.

The current phase of the counteroffensive is a “preparatory operation” and once the counteroffensive is fully underway it will be a success, the Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov said.

“This year will be a game changer,” he told Fox News in an interview.

“My gut feeling is we will win this war because we are fighting for our country.”

Denying that the ongoing fierce pushback from Ukrainian forces on multiple fronts is the counteroffensive, Mr Reznikov said the action is “some kind of preparatory operation”, adding that Russian forces have built up “very strong defensive lines”.

While the early expectations for the counteroffensive were “overestimated”, Mr Reznikov said, he added that Ukraine is extremely careful in deploying its brave and motivated soldiers in dangerous way.

“We try to save their lives,” the defence minister said.

On Saturday, Mr Prigozhin’s forces appeared to control the military headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don near the Ukrainian border after crossing from occupied parts of Ukraine

The governor of the Lipetsk province later said the Wagner Group entered his region, which is about 225 miles south of Moscow.

The march was then dramatically called off later on Saturday as it abandoned a coup that saw soldiers take control of the military headquarters in both Rostov and Voronezh.

Rogue Russian mercenary fighters had their efforts labelled as “treason” by Vladimir Putin after the shock advance that began on Friday evening.

The mutiny, called off when troops were just four hours from the Russian capital in a deal brokered by Belarus, marked one of the most explosive episodes in the country’s war saga to date.

The move came after the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the Kremlin of deliberately bombing Wagner troops in Bakhmut.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence has called the instalment “the most significant challenge to the Russian state” in a series of events that are set to put the city firmly on the map.

US intelligence agencies learned weeks ago that the Wagner Group was planning an insurrection, officials in Washington have said.

Multiple US officials told The Washington Post, that intelligence agencies learned in mid-June that the Russian mercernary group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, was planning an armed rebellion to take out the country’s military leaders who he has blamed for the bungled invasion of Ukraine.

“There were enough signals to be able to tell the leadership … that something was up,” an unnamed US official told the Post, referring to the White House. “So I think they were ready for it.”

President Zelensky connected with President Biden following the almost-coup in Russia by the Wagner Group.

Zelensky’s full statement on Twitter read: “I spoke with President @POTUS. A positive and inspiring conversation.

“We discussed the course of hostilities and the processes taking place in Russia. The world must put pressure on Russia until international order is restored.

“I thanked the @POTUS for the unflagging support of Ukraine, especially for Patriots.

“It is important to further increase Ukraine’s capabilities to protect our skies. In this context, I also thanked him for the support of the fighter jet coalition.

“We discussed further expansion of defense cooperation, with an emphasis on long-range weapons.

“I am grateful for the readiness of the US and the American people to stand side by side with Ukraine until the full liberation of all our territories within internationally recognized borders.

“We coordinated our positions on the eve of the @NATO Summit in Vilnius, discussed further work on the implementation of Peace Formula and preparations for the Global Peace Summit.”

Russian authorities have told journalists to “take a day off” after covering the march in on Moscow by the Wagner Group due to it being a “tense” weekend.

The rebellion led by Yevgeny Prigozhin which vowed to attack Russian military leadership caused reporters and newsrooms to work around the clock over the weekend, so authorities have told media employees to take a day off on Monday, according to Agence France-Presse.

“Saturday was a very emotional and tense day,” the ministry of digital development, communications and mass media said in a statement on social media.

“We recommend giving employees of IT and telecom companies and media a day off.”

“Many employees of the digital development ministry spent the weekend at their workplace,” the statement said, “so we also made this decision for our employees.”