American newspaper Wall Street Journal has claimed that Wagner Group Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin had planned to capture two high-ranking military officials in Russia when he launched a ’’coup“ last week.

The officials targeted were Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and top army general Valery Gerasimov. Prigozhin intended to carry out the operation when the officials visited a region near the Ukraine border, the newspaper said.

However, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) discovered the plot two days before it was supposed to happen. This forced Prigozhin to change his plans at the last minute and instead lead his forces on a march towards Moscow, it said.

The Wagner mercenaries managed to take control of a strategic military base in Rostov-on-Don, and they were advancing towards the Russian capital before Prigozhin called off the mutiny, which he described as a protest march.

Commenting on the Wall Street Journal report, two European security officials told CNN that while it was possible that Prigozhin had expressed a desire to capture the military leaders, there was no evaluation of whether he had a credible plan to carry out the operation.