NEW: The mercenary chief whose rebels seized a Russian city over the weekend says he acted to protect his fighters and not to topple President Putin, according to a recording.
"This unit was supposed to have ended its existence on July 1, 2023," Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said
The weekend's events were a stunning escalation in a long-running feud between Prigozhin and the military’s top brass, whom he has repeatedly accused of starving Wagner of weapons and supplies. Without providing evidence, Prigozhin also said the Russian military had intentionally bombed Wagner troops ahead of theWagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves the headquarters of the Southern Military District amid the group's pullout from Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Monday he was lifting all restrictions from the “counterterrorism regime” imposed in a bid to halt the mercenaries' march. Military checkpoints had been established, roads torn up and public events canceled.The effort to restore control followed a mutiny that left Putin's strongman rule in unprecedented uncertainty.
Then they suddenly turned back, the product of a purported deal that would see Prigozhin leave for Belarus and the charges dropped against his fighters — whom Putin had hours earlierHowever, Russian state-run media reported that the criminal case initially launched against Prigozhin for inciting an armed rebellion was not closed. The reports cited an unnamed source close to the prosecutor general’s office.
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