Below is the latest news on the armed uprising launched by the owner of the Wagner Group, a private Russian military contractor, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
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The head of Russia’s private military company Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, will move to neighboring Belarus and drop the criminal case against him as part of a deal to defuse tensions over the insurgency, the Kremlin announced on Saturday.
In addition, mercenaries from the group who joined the billionaire in the uprising will not be punished for rebellion, and those who never joined him will receive contract offers from the Defense Ministry, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added.
After the agreement, Prigozhin said he ordered his troops to halt their advance on Moscow and withdraw to their camps in Ukraine, where they fought alongside the Russian army.
The deal appeared to defuse a dramatically escalating crisis that has posed the greatest challenge for President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power.
The pact was brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch Putin ally.
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Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin said Saturday he had ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow and withdraw to their camps in Ukraine to avoid Russian bloodshed.
The announcement appeared to calm a growing crisis. Moscow had been preparing for the arrival of soldiers from the Russian private military company run by the rebel commander. President Vladimir Putin had warned of serious consequences.
Prigozhin did not say whether the Kremlin responded to his demand that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu be ousted. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.
The announcement followed a statement from the office of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, which said it had negotiated a deal with Prigozhin after previously discussing the matter with President Putin.
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Moscow Mayor on Saturday warned that traffic could be restricted in parts of the Russian capital as part of measures to tighten security in response to an uprising by mercenaries from the private military company Wagner Group.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin urged residents of Moscow to refrain from using their cars during the so-called anti-terrorist operation in the capital and the surrounding region that the authorities launched on Saturday. In addition, Monday was declared a day off for most people, with the exception of civil servants and employees of some industrial companies.
Sobyanin stressed that all key city services are on standby and advised residents to report any emergencies.
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Russian authorities tightened security measures in several regions of the country on Saturday in a bid to thwart an armed uprising led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group.
Security was tighter, particularly in the areas between the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where Prigozhin’s Wagner group appeared to control military headquarters, and Moscow.
The governor of the Lipetsk region urged residents to stay at home and refrain from travel. Governor Igor Artamonov said on Telegram that Wagner entered the province but “the situation is under control”.
Mass events planned in the neighboring Tambov region were canceled on Saturday.
These events also included high school proms. Russia’s Education Ministry said such holidays would be postponed to July 1 in Moscow, the region around the capital and “several other regions where additional anti-terrorist measures have been introduced.”
In the capital, traffic on the Moskva was suspended. Police officers with bulletproof vests and submachine guns were seen near the entrance to the main road connecting Moscow with Voronezh and Rostov-on-Don.
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The governor of Russia’s Lipetsk province reported on Saturday that the Wagner mercenary group had invaded the region.
The Lipetsk region is about 360 kilometers south of Moscow and much closer to the capital than Rostov-on-Don, where Wagner’s troops turned up overnight.
The authorities “take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of the population. “The situation is under control,” Governor Igor Artamonov said in a message via Telegram. He did not provide any further information about Wagner’s presence.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zekenskyy says it is clear Russia is suffering from “widespread weakness” after mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin launched an armed insurgency.
In comments he published on his Telegram channel on Saturday, Zelenskyy claimed that “everyone who chooses the path of evil destroys himself”.
“Russia has long used propaganda to cover up its weakness and the stupidity of its government. And now there is so much chaos that no lie can cover it up,” he added.
“Russia’s weakness is obvious. “Widespread weakness,” added Zelenskyy. “And the longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain and trouble there will be later.” That’s also obvious.”
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Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin on Saturday dismissed President Vladimir Putin’s accusation that he was betraying his country and described his fighters as patriots.
In an audio message on his Telegram channel, the owner of the Wagner Group said: “The President is deeply mistaken about treason. We are patriots.”
His troops will not capitulate, as Putin claimed, because “we don’t want the country to continue living in corruption, fraud and bureaucracy.”
In a televised address to the nation earlier in the day, Putin declared that “all those who prepared the uprising will inevitably be punished,” noting that “the armed forces and other government agencies have received the necessary orders.”
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Officials across Russia are supporting President Vladimir Putin and publicly reaffirming their loyalty to the Kremlin while urging mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to resign.
Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of Russia’s Lower House (Duma), said after his address to the nation on Saturday that lawmakers “support the consolidation of forces” and support Putin.
The fighters of Prigozhin’s Wagner group “have to make the only right decision: to stand by their people, stand on the side of the law, protect the security and future of the Motherland, and follow the orders of the Supreme Commander.” ” Volodin added.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zajárova said in a Telegram post: “We have a commander-in-chief. Not two, not three. One. And (he) called everyone to unity.”
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader who has sided with Prigozhin in his criticism of the military leadership in the past, also expressed his full support for “every word” from Putin, adding that “the uprising must be crushed “.
So far, no Russian official has backed Prigozhin.
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The uprising, started by Yevgeny Prigozhin, receives unexpected support from exiled tycoon and opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Khodorkovsky said the Wagner Group owner’s uprising was “the hardest blow to[Russian President Vladimir]Putin’s reputation” and that it would “help our country” to follow him to the country to help Moscow.
Furthermore, he claimed that Prigozhin “repeated word for word what we, the anti-war opposition, have been saying since the beginning of the war”, that “the purpose of the war is robbery” and that nobody believes in the official motive for the armed conflict in the Ukraine.
“Help the devil if he decides to oppose this regime! Help, because there is no crime worse than starting a war of aggression. “If one criminal is ready to interfere with another (…), we must help, and if necessary we will then confront him,” Khodorkovsky wrote.
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A Ukrainian presidential aide claims that the launch of the counteroffensive in Kyiv “finally destabilized Russian elites” and exacerbated internal divisions.
Mykhailo Podolyak said on Saturday that events are developing “according to the scenario we have been talking about for a year,” Ukraine’s Interfax news agency said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday vowed to protect his country from the armed uprising launched by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of a mercenary group, which the president described as a “stab in the back” against Moscow.
The uprising comes as Kiev forces are testing Russian defenses in the initial stages of their counteroffensive.
Podolyak said that “the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive finally destabilizes the Russian elites and exacerbates the internal divisions that arose after the defeat in Ukraine.”
“Today we are witnessing the beginning of a civil war,” he added.
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The British Ministry of Defense described the armed insurgency by mercenaries from the Wagner Group as the greatest challenge to the Russian state in recent times.
The intelligence report released by the ministry on Saturday said the dispute between Yevgeny Prigozhin’s group and Russian institutions has escalated into an “open military confrontation”.
“Wagner almost certainly held key security locations in Rostov-on-Don, including the headquarters that directed Russian military operations in Ukraine,” the report said. “Other Wagner units are moving north through Voronezh Oblast, almost certainly to reach Moscow.”
According to the report, there is very limited evidence of fighting between the mercenary group’s troops and Russian security forces.
“In the next few hours, the loyalty of the Russian security forces, and especially the National Guard, will be crucial for the development of the crisis,” he added.
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A video published on Telegram on Saturday showed Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the private army Wagner Group, in a meeting with Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Deputy General Staff Vladimir Alexeyev.
In the note, the origin of which could not be independently verified, Prigozhin claimed that he and his troops were “saving Russia” and called on the Russian authorities to sack Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.
“We want the chief of staff and shoigu,” Prigozhin said. “While they are here, we will blockade the city of Rostov and go to Moscow.”
In the video, Yevkurov and Alexeyev tried in vain to persuade Prigozhin to withdraw his troops from Roston-on-Don.
Prigozhin, a billionaire Kremlin ally, has had a longstanding feud with the Russian military leadership.
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The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence said the conflict between the Russian military leadership and Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin was “a head-on clash of lies and truths.”
Speaking to Ukrainian television on Saturday, Kyrylo Budanov said the clash came about because Prigozhin, “like it or not, mostly tells the truth,” while the Russian Defense Ministry tells “mostly lies.”
The conflict was “not a fake,” he added.
According to Budanov, senior Russian defense officials talk about progress in brave young soldiers, Prigozhin points to miscalculations, lack of equipment, lack of training and other problems.
“This is a head-on collision of lies and truth. Although both work entirely in the interests of the Russian Federation, we must be aware of that,” he explained.
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Addressing the nation, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to protect the country and its people from the armed uprising launched by the owner of private military company Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Putin called the uprising a “deadly threat to our state” and promised “tough measures” in response. “All those who prepared the uprising will suffer an inevitable punishment. The armed forces and other government agencies have received the necessary orders,” he added.
Without naming Prigozhin directly, Putin called his actions a “betrayal of the fatherland” and urged “those involved in this crime not to make a fatal and tragic, unique mistake and to make the only right decision: this to leave the country.’ Involvement in crime’.
Putin condemned the uprising at a time when Russia is “waging the toughest fight for its future” with its war in Ukraine. “The entire military, economic and information machinery of the West is against us,” said the Russian president.
