Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has broken his silence after calling off his armed uprising on Saturday night. He insisted he was marching on Moscow to prevent the Kremlin from taking control of his mercenary army and denied conspiring to overthrow Vladimir Putin.

In an 11-minute audio clip released on Wagner-affiliated Telegram channels, Prigozhin claimed the armed uprising was a “master class” on how Russia’s attack on Kiev should have looked.

He said he canceled his group’s advance on the Russian capital only to avoid Russian bloodshed, adding that the uprising was intended as a protest against Ukraine’s ineffective warfare.

Prigozhin described his Wagner mercenaries as “perhaps the most experienced and combative unit in Russia, possibly in the world” and said his private military company had done “an enormous amount of work in the interests of Russia”.

He also claimed that he created the uprising to “prevent the destruction of the Wagner group,” pointing out that they had been ordered to surrender their arms to the Russian military and that in the event of air raids by the Russian Air Force suffered casualties.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of military company Wagner Group, looks out of a military vehicle on a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24, 2023

Soldiers from the private military company (PMC) Wagner Group drive a tank marked ‘Siberia’ on a street in downtown Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia, June 24, 2023

Russian media outlet Meduza claimed the mercenary leader frantically called Putin (pictured) on his way to Moscow after realizing he’d made a mistake, but the Russian leader ignored his call and chillingly reminded him who continued to do so has say

“The aim of the campaign was to prevent the destruction of the Wagner PMC and to bring to justice those who made numerous mistakes through their unprofessional actions during the military special operation,” Prigozhin said.

“We went there to demonstrate our protest and not to overthrow the government in the country.”

Prigozhin, who did not reveal where he was speaking from, boasted that the ease with which they had advanced on Moscow revealed “serious security problems”.

This comes despite reports from news website Meduza that the mercenary leader frantically called Putin en route to Moscow after realizing he’d made a mistake, but the Russian leader ignored his call and chillingly reminded him who continues to call the shots.

Prigozhin also claimed that the Russian Air Force, despite showing no aggression towards Russian forces, launched airstrikes on his troops, killing 30 people.

This, he said, “was the trigger” that motivated him to order Wagner mercenaries to seize Russian soil.

He said, “We covered 780 kilometers in one day.” Not a single soldier on the ground was killed. We regret that we were forced to attack [Russian] air forces, but they dropped bombs and carried out rocket attacks.”

Up to 15 Russian Air Force pilots are believed to have been killed in the attacks by Wagner troops.

Prigozhin added, “As we passed Russian cities on June 23 and 24, civilians greeted us with Russian flags and with the emblems and flags of the Wagner PMC.” They all cheered as we passed. Many of them are still writing words of support and some are disappointed that we stopped, because in the “Justice March” they saw, in addition to our struggle for existence, support for the fight against bureaucracy and other abuses that exist in our country country today.

“We started our march because of injustice.” We didn’t kill a single soldier on the ground along the way. In one day they reached a point only 200 kilometers from Moscow and took complete control of the city of Rostov.

“We gave a master class on February 24, 2022 (when Russia sent troops to Ukraine) on how it should have been done.” “Our goal was not to overthrow the existing regime and the legitimately elected government.”

Prigozhin concluded his statement by saying that he had ordered the troops to halt their advance some 200 kilometers outside of Moscow, knowing that any further advance would result in armed conflict and many deaths.

“We stopped the moment the first assault commando, which was 200 kilometers from Moscow, was scouting the area, and it was clear that a lot of blood would be shed at that moment.”

“So we felt demonstrating what we wanted to do was sufficient.”

The Wagner leader also confirmed that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was instrumental in brokering an agreement between the Kremlin and Prigozhin that would result in the latter not being punished for organizing the uprising.

Lukashenko is said to have offered Prigozhin refuge in Minsk in return, ensuring his safety and granting amnesty to all Wagner troops involved in the capture of the southern town of Rosotv-on-Don and the march to Moscow.

However, several Russian media reported that criminal investigations into Prigozhin were still ongoing. Some MPs called for severe penalties after Putin said on Saturday he would “punish the traitors who betray Russia”.

Although Wagner’s armed uprising on Russian soil came as a surprise to most, Prigozhin’s hatred of the Russian military command has long been known.

Wagner leaders also confirmed that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (pictured) was instrumental in brokering an agreement between the Kremlin and Prigozhin that would allow the latter to escape punishment for organizing the uprising

Members of the Wagner Group prepare to depart the Southern Military District headquarters on June 24, 2023 and return to their base in Rostov-on-Don, Russia

This image captured from video shows citizens standing near military vehicles on a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24, 2023

Prigozhin has long expressed hatred and distrust of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (centre).

For months before the uprising, he had snubbed and attacked Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian army chief General Valery Gerasimov for failing to provide his troops with adequate ammunition in the battle for Ukraine’s longest and bloodiest battle.

Putin, meanwhile, spoke to the leaders of Iran and Qatar on Monday, the Kremlin said, and sent a recorded video message to a forum of young engineers that made no mention of the mutiny.

It’s not yet clear what the cracks left by the 24-hour insurgency will mean for the war in Ukraine, where Western officials say Russian troops’ morale is suffering from low morale. Wagner’s forces were key to Russia’s only land victory in months at Bakhmut.

Fighting continued in Ukraine, where Kiev’s forces scored new victories in the fight to drive out Russian troops from the east and south of the country, but in the Russian capital the authorities abandoned their tightened security regime.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, stressed that there had been a return to normal after announcing over the weekend that Prigozhin would be allowed to go into exile in Belarus and that there would be a general amnesty for his troops.

Putin himself did not address the dramatic events directly, instead delivering a video address to a youth forum entitled “Engineers of the Future” and praising companies for addressing “severe external challenges”.

Wagner’s headquarters in Saint Petersburg said it would remain open for business, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the company would continue to operate in Mali and the Central African Republic.

According to his office, Putin spoke to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi by telephone and received “full support” from Tehran.

He also received a call from Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar, who also expressed his support.

Defense Minister Shoigu appeared in additional pre-taped footage on state television, apparently in which he was visiting troops in Ukraine. However, it was not clear when the post was filmed.

Officials in Moscow and in the Voronezh region south of the capital lifted emergency counter-terrorism measures imposed to protect the capital from rebel attacks.

Ukrainian military leaders, meanwhile, insisted they were making progress in the south and east of the country, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a moralizing jaunt at troops fighting Russian forces near the town of Bakhmut.

“We are knocking the enemy out of their positions on the flanks of the city of Bakhmut,” said Oleksandr Syrskyj, commander of the Eastern Ground Forces. ‘Ukraine is reclaiming its territory.’ We are making progress.’

Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar said Ukraine has recaptured the rural settlement of Rivnopil on the southern front in the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian residents of the front-line town of Druzhkivka near Bakhmut, also in Donetsk, told AFP news agency that four explosions rocked a residential area overnight.

The blasts severed water and sewage pipes, shattered windows and hurled rocks, hitting courtyards and roofs. According to city officials, no one was injured.

“It was a ‘fun’ night, we haven’t had that in a long time, it’s been quiet for about a month,” said 66-year-old Lyubov, showing off the new hole in her cement-shingled roof.

The wine-growing and salt-mining town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region was captured by Russian forces led by Prighosin’s private army in May.

However, the victory was short-lived.

When the Wagner boss got into a fight with Shoigu and Gerasimov, Ukraine launched a counter-offensive.

Western allies, who support Ukraine with weapons and money, see Putin’s takeover of power weakened by Wagner’s revolt and deployment in Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, visiting Lithuania ahead of next month’s NATO summit in Vilnius, said Putin’s Ukraine campaign has weakened his own domestic position.

Germany meanwhile strengthened the defense of Europe on the eastern flank against Russia and announced that it would station a powerful 4,000-strong army brigade in Lithuania.

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Two centre-left candidates will fight for Guatemala’s presidency in a run-off in August after an election marred by the exclusion of four candidates and a high number of invalid ballots failed to produce a clear winner in Central America’s largest economy.

Counting 98 percent of the vote on election Sunday, official results showed former first lady Sandra Torres topped the polls with 15.8 percent of the vote, followed by former diplomat Bernardo Arévalo, son of a former left-wing president, at 11 .8 percent.

Torres, 67, ran for the country’s largest political party, center-left grouping UNE, and expressed optimism when the results came in. “We are ready to win the election and for me to become Guatemala’s first female president,” she told a news conference.

Pre-election polls showed that Arévalo, leader of the Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement) party founded six years ago, had no chance of winning the runoff. “We didn’t come here to win the polls. We came to win the elections,” Arévalo said in one post on twitter early on Monday. “We’re fine.”

None of the remaining 20 candidates garnered even 8 percent of the vote in a fragmented election marked by high levels of voter distrust. Less than half of Guatemala’s 9.4 million voters cast a valid ballot, 40 percent abstained, and almost a quarter of the ballots were blank or invalid.

Conservative President Alejandro Giammattei, whose approval rating is around 26 percent, is constitutionally barred from standing for re-election. The US imposed sanctions on its Attorney General last year over allegations of “substantial corruption”.

Arévalo had presented itself as a “decent and credible” alternative for voters tired of a system widely seen as rigged to minimize the chance of meaningful reforms. He has promised to make the fight against corruption a top priority if elected.

Will Freeman, a Latin America fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said Torres’ first place was expected by Guatemala’s largest political machine because of her leadership, but Arévalo’s success came as a “complete surprise”.

“It is a sign that mainstream interests have failed to quell Guatemalans’ desire to break free from an often venal, predatory and corrupt political class,” he added. “Arévalo and Semilla will now have the chance to make themselves known to a much wider public.”

Both the US and the EU had criticized the exclusion of candidates by an electoral tribunal accused of making politicized decisions. Carlos Pineda, a businessman who was an early front-runner before his disqualification, had urged his supporters to falsify their ballots.

Guatemala has sought to consolidate democracy since the end of a 36-year civil war in 1996. But critics say the quality of government has deteriorated sharply since a United Nations-backed anti-corruption commission was ousted from the country in 2019.

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Dozens of journalists and former anti-corruption officials have fled Guatemala as one of the country’s best-known journalists was sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering amid a spate of criminal prosecutions.

Torres is running for the presidency for the third time after a runoff loss to Giammattei in 2019. She is associated with the social programs introduced by her then-husband, President Álvaro Colom, in 2008–12. In 2019, she was charged with campaign finance irregularities and illegal association, but the case was later dropped.

Analysts believe Torres will face high rejection rates in the second ballot. A poll in April found more than 34 percent said they would never vote for her.

Guatemala’s economy has been relatively stable, growing above the regional average in 2022, but high levels of inequality remain, with around half of the population living in poverty. In both 2021 and 2022, more than 230,000 Guatemalans were caught illegally crossing the US border by patrols.

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s attempted coup against Tsar Valdimir Putin was and is the focus of numerous debates. The leader of the mercenary militia has shaken the Kremlin’s strength and put the entire world on high alert. The armed insurgency threatening Russia has drawn the attention of journalists, pundits and celebrities. It was an intervention by Sabrina Ferilli that sparked debate. The actress did not hold back on her Instagram profile and commented on what was happening in sharp tones.

“Traitors appall me,” Ferilli wrote in an Instagram story immediately after the attempted coup by Prigozhin, the leader of the private militia, who stopped 200 kilometers from Moscow after threatening Putin. The Roman actress’s story also reported a statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: “Russia’s weakness is obvious.” and weapons from all over the world is financed. Madness!”, throwing a dig at all those who have always supported the country. Ukraine.

Later, after hearing the news of the departure of Prigozhin and his troops thanks to the mediation of Belarusian President Lukashenko, the actress picked up the newspaper’s headline: “Let’s go back so as not to spill more blood,” returned to the topic and said: typed strong words: “Nasty. Who knows, now recommended by whom”. Ferilli’s intervention sparked a stir from users who pointed fingers at her on Twitter: “We can’t deliver guns or money, but who should we admire? This bloodthirsty Putin?”, “The field should be left open for Putin and all his supporters.” ?”, “I even liked them, but these are sleazy and silly statements”. Despite being caught in the eye of the storm, the actress hasn’t offered any explanations for her statements for now.