Members of the Wagner group watch from a military vehicle on the night of June 24, 2023 in RostovonDon. Mercenary rebel leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who sent his fighters to overthrow military leaders in Moscow, will leave for Belarus and become a criminal. The case against him will be dropped under an agreement to avoid “bloodshed,” the Kremlin said on March 24. June with
the powers of Wagner paramilitary group began to withdraw Russiaby order of their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who unexpectedly announced his withdrawal after challenging the authority of Wladimir Putin while Kiev called for progress in eastern Ukraine. Since Friday evening, the 23rd, the paramilitary leader began a mutiny with a promise to “liberate the Russian people” by moving his troops to Moscow. However, this Saturday afternoon, the 24th, Brazilian time, he returned to avoid a bath “Russian blood”, in his words. “We are returning to our camps,” he announced. Since mutiny was announced the day before in southwestern Russia, Wagner’s men reached three Russian regions Rostov, Voronezh and Lipetsk and positioned themselves less than 400 km from the capital. Cheered by dozens of residents of Rostov with shouts of “Wagner, Wagner!”, the militants began to leave the region on Saturday evening. By dawn, the area was already completely clear, said the region’s governor, Vasily Golubev.
According to the agreement, Prigozhin could travel to Belarus because of his “merits on the Ukrainian front” and avoid prosecution in Russia and its fighters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “The main goal was to avoid a bloodbath and clashes with unpredictable consequences.” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a Putin ally who has known Prigozhin for more than two decades, seems to have played an important mediating role. According to Minsk, it was he who suggested to Wagner’s leaders to halt his advance in Russia. “We are grateful to the President of Belarus for this commitment,” said the Kremlin spokesman. Following the announcement of the withdrawal, some of the extraordinary security measures taken in Russia in the face of the Wagner army’s advance were lifted, most notably in the Lipetsk region, south of the capital (where the paramilitaries had entered), in Moscow and in the Russian Region. from Kaluga, the regional capital of which is 180 km from Moscow. “The restrictions imposed today are gradually being lifted. In the near future we will reopen access to highways in the region,” announced the region’s governor Igor Artamonov.
*With information from AFP