As soon as the Wagner coup started, Ukrainian social media was full of memes of Vladimir Putin saying ‘I don’t need ammo, I need a ride’ – the inverse of Zelensky’s famous approach when tanks moved towards Kyiv. But is there any truth in it? Did Putin and or allies flee when trenches were being dug around Moscow and the Warner Group were 200km from the capital? The Kremlin says not, but there was plenty of suspicious activity,

The independent Russian investigative media organisation Important Stories reported some suspicious movement: that Putin’s personal jet plane, an Ilyushin Il96-300-PU, took off in...