Live news: Putin blames Ukraine and its ‘western masters’ for aborted coup attempt

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday suggested Ukraine was involved in Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin’s shortlived rebellion.

“This fratricide is the result of Russia’s enemies and the neo-Nazis in Kyiv, their western masters, and all sorts of national traitors wanted,” Russia’s president said in a five-minute televised address, his first comments since the end of the uprising.

Putin has asked Wagner paramilitaries to sign contracts with Russia’s defence ministry, go home or leave for Belarus

In London, UK defence secretary Ben Wallace played down the impact of the rebellion on Putin’s authority, signalling the status quo prevailed in Moscow.

“We shouldn’t necessarily over-credit the destabilisation, that somehow this is a massive derailment of the Kremlin,” he said.