Wagner Group Leaves Rostov
Wagner Group
Yevgeny Prigozhin was seen leaving Rostov-on-Don on Saturday (24/6).
He and his entourage decided to return to their base after canceling the invasion of Moscow.
Previously, the Wagner Group had succeeded in the Rostov coup and intended to invade Moscow.
The attack was carried out after the Russian government intended to disband the mercenary forces.
President Vladimir Putin was also reported to have 'fled' from Moscow in the midst of the attack.
However, the plan for the attack was canceled after Prigozhin did not want bloodshed with the Russians.
He also agreed to leave Russia, and the government agreed not to prosecute Wagner's troops.
The governor of Voronezh, Alexander Gusev, said Wagner's troops had left the region after a dramatic uprising to topple Russian officials and planned to storm Moscow.
"The movement of Wagner units through the Voronezh region has ended. (The withdrawal of troops is proceeding normally and without incident," Gusev said.
Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin mobilized his troops to occupy the Russian military headquarters in Rostov and sent troops to Moscow to overthrow Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
He claimed to have controlled military facilities and an airfield in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on Saturday (24/6) at 07.30 local time.
"This is not a military coup, but a march for justice," Prigozhin was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
However, Prigozhin said he was withdrawing his mercenary troops to avoid bloodshed in Moscow, Russia.
Later, it emerged that Prigozhin was withdrawing his troops after negotiations with Moscow.
"We withdrew our ranks and returned to the field camp," he said Saturday (24/6) local time, as reported by AFP.
"We understand the importance of that moment and don't want to spill Russian blood," he continued.
President Vladimir Putin has called the Wagner Group uprising a "deadly threat" to Russia and urged his country to unite.
He also branded Wagner's actions as treason and, at one point, vowed to carry out "inevitable punishment".
However, the Kremlin said it was dropping all criminal charges against Prigozhin and his soldiers.
Prigozhin agreed to live in exile in Belarus.
Prigozhin said his men were only 200 kilometers from the Russian capital.
However, he decides to return them to prevent murder.
"They want to dissolve the Wagner military company. We started our march for justice on June 23.
Now, the moment has come when blood can be shed," Prigozhin said in an audio message.
"Understanding responsibility for the possibility that Russian blood would be spilled on one side, we reversed our ranks and returned to the field camp as planned," he said.
Moscow tightened security in anticipation of the arrival of the renegade Wagner Group troops.
A checkpoint was set up with armored vehicles and troops on its south bank. Red Square is closed.
The mayor of Moscow asked motorists to stay off some roads.
Wagner's flash uprising grew because of the resistance of the regular Russian armed forces.
This raises questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin's grip on power in the nuclear-armed nation, even after the sudden halt of Wagner's advance.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko negotiates with mercenary bosses to stop Wagner's troop advance.
Lukashenko said the decision to accept Pirgozhin was made after discussing the matter with Putin.
Prigozhin accepted Lukashenko's offer to stop the rebellion by the Wagner Group.
Prigozhin did not say whether the Kremlin had responded to his request to remove Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.
Wagner's chief will move to neighboring Belarus as part of the deal, and the criminal case against him will be closed, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
Prigozhin's troops who joined him in the uprising will not be tried, and those who are not will be offered contracts by the defense ministry, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
It can be said that this rebellion was only half-hearted because it was not aimed at the President but at the Minister of Defense and other high-ranking military officers.
Prigozhin, a former ally of Putin and founder of the Wagner army, said his men were up to 200 kilometers from the capital.
Previously, Moscow deployed troops to prepare for their arrival and asked residents not to leave.
Wagner's soldiers captured the city of Rostov hundreds of kilometers to the south before racing in convoys across the country, hauling tanks and armored trucks and destroying barricades set up to stop them.
On Saturday evening, Wagner's troops loaded tanks onto trailers and began retreating from the Rostov military base they had captured, a witness told Reuters.
"In 24 hours, we covered 200 kilometers from Moscow.
At this time, we have not shed a single drop of blood from our fighters," said Prigozhin, who was wearing a full combat uniform at an undisclosed location, in a video.
"Understanding that Russian blood would be shed on one side, we turned our masts around and returned to field camp as planned."
An earlier video showed a convoy of Wagner vehicles less than 500 kilometers from Moscow.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's office said the decision to stop Wagner's advance was brokered by the Belarusian president, with Putin's approval, in exchange for guarantees of their safety.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Prigozhin himself would move to Belarus under the deal.
Peskov said Lukashenko had offered to mediate because he had known the mercenary leader personally for about 20 years.
Wagner's flash uprising appeared to thrive with little pushback from Russia's regular armed forces, raising questions about Putin's hold on the nuclear-armed nation even after the abrupt cessation of Wagner's forces.
Previously, Prigozhin said that what he called the "march for justice" was meant to weed out corrupt and incompetent Russian commanders, and he blamed it for undermining the war in Ukraine.
In a televised speech from the Kremlin, Putin had previously said the Wagner uprising threatened Russia's very existence.
"We are fighting for the life and peace of our people, for our sovereignty and independence, for the right to remain Russia, a country with a thousand-year history," Putin said, vowing to punish those who were "preparing an armed uprising".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Wagner uprising, which sparked a series of high-level calls between Western leaders, exposed the turmoil in Russia.
"Today the world can see that the rulers of Russia control nothing.
And that means nothing.
Video obtained by Reuters shows the troop carrier and two trucks each carrying tanks driving 50 kilometers outside the city of Voronezh, just over halfway to Moscow from the Ukrainian border.
A helicopter opened fire on them near Voronezh, where a fuel depot exploded in a fireball shortly after a helicopter flew past, according to video obtained by Reuters.
Wagner's squad, like Prigozhin's, included thousands of ex-convicts recruited from Russian prisons.
His men fought in the bloodiest war of the Ukrainian War for 16 months, including for the eastern city of Bakhmut.
He has railed for months at military top brass, most notably Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, accusing them of being incompetent and withholding ammunition from their fighters.
This month, he defied an order to sign a contract placing his troops under the command of the Defense Ministry.
This contract clause has been approved by Putin.
He launched an uprising on Friday after claiming that the military had killed many of his fighters in airstrikes.
The Ministry of Defense denied this.
He said he had captured the headquarters of Russia's Southern Military District without opening fire in Rostov, which served as the main logistics hub for Russia's entire invasion force in Ukraine.
The surrounding area is also an important oil, gas, and grain region.
The townspeople had been milling about quietly, filming on their cell phones, as Wagner in armor and battle tanks took position.
One tank is wedged between a stucco building and posters advertising a circus.
Another tank had the word "Siberia" emblazoned in red on the front, a clear statement of intent to sweep across Russia.