Commander Yevgeny Prigozhin on Saturday said he decided to turn his private army back to avoid “shedding Russian blood.”
The head of the Wagner force said Saturday he has ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow and retreat to their field camps in Ukraine to avoid shedding Russian blood.
The announcement follows a statement from the office of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko saying that he had negotiated a deal with Prigozhin after previously discussing the issue with Putin. An APC and road police officers stand on the highway at the entrance to Moscow, Russia, Saturday, June 24, 2023.
In this photo taken from video, a woman poses for a photo at a Russian armored vehicle, with writing reading “Siberia”, parked in a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, Saturday, June 24, 2023. Russia’s security services had responded to mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s declaration of an armed rebellion by calling for his arrest. In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin took the threat, security was heightened in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and other regions.
In this photo taken from video a Russian armored vehicle stands in a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, Saturday, June 24, 2023. Russia’s security services had responded to Prigozhin’s declaration of an armed rebellion by calling for his arrest. In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin took the threat, security was heightened in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and other regions.
FILE Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, speaks with Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, left, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, after a meeting with senior military officers in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has remained silent about harsh criticism of the top military brass from Yevgeny Prigozhin, the maverick millionaire head of the private military contractor Wagner.
A view of the Russian Defense Ministry building with anti-aircraft artillery systems atop the roof in Moscow, Saturday, June 24, 2023. In this handout photo taken from video released by Prigozhin Press Service, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group military company, records his video addresses in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, Saturday, June 24, 2023. The owner of the Wagner private military contractor who called for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister has confirmed in a video that he and his troops have reached Rostov-on-Don.
President Vladimir Putin vowed harsh consequences for organizers of the armed uprising led by his onetime protege, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who brought his forces out of Ukraine, seized a key military facility in southern Russia and advanced toward Moscow. Prigozhin’s private army appeared to control the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a city 660 miles south of Moscow that runs Russian operations in Ukraine, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow was suffering “full-scale weakness” and that Kyiv was protecting Europe from “the spread of Russian evil and chaos.” Prigozhin’s private army has been fighting alongside regular Russian troops in Ukraine. His goals weren’t immediately clear, but the rebellion marks an escalation in his struggle with Russian military leaders, whom he accused of botching the war in Ukraine and hobbling his forces in the field.Prigozhin said he had 25,000 troops under his command and urged the army not to offer resistance.
State-controlled TV networks led their newscasts with Putin’s statement and reported the tense situation in Rostov-on-Don. Some showed social media videos of residents denouncing Wagner troops. He alleged that Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff, ordered the attacks following a meeting with Shoigu, where they decided to destroy the military contractor.The 62-year-old Prigozhin, a former convict, has long ties to the Russian leader and won lucrative Kremlin catering contracts that earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef.”
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova echoed that, saying in a Telegram post that “we have one commander in chief. Not two, not three. One.″ “For a long time, Russia used propaganda to mask its weakness and the stupidity of its government. And now there is so much chaos that no lie can hide it,” he said.
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