Gboyega Akinsanmi with agency report
The commander of Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, last night agreed to live in exile in the Republic of Belarus after ending the gravest threat to the 23-year rule of President Vladimir Putin in Russia.
The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, according to reports, negotiated the ceasefire with the mercenary boss to stop Wagner’s troop movement after discussing the issue with Putin.
With the agreement, Prigozhin ordered his fighters to halt their march on Moscow to avoid “shedding Russian blood.”
Before Prigozhin halted an armed invasion into Moscow, Russia’s political capital, reports revealed that mercenaries were just 200 kilometres from Russia yesterday.
As Wagner’s fighters successfully took over Rostov and advanced towards Moscow, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) claimed Putin’s aircraft was spotted on flight radar flying northwest from Moscow to the St Petersburg area.
The flight radar, according to the BBC, later disappeared from the system near the city of Tver, where Putin owns a large rural retreat.
Defending Wagner’s insurrection attempt, Prigozhin said: “They wanted to disband the Wagner military company. We embarked on a march of justice on June 23. Now, the moment has come when blood could be spilled,” said Prigozhin in an audio message.
“Understanding responsibility for the chance that Russian blood will be spilled on one side, we are turning our columns around and going back to field camps as planned.”
As part of the ceasefire yesterday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov announced that Russia would not pursue a criminal case against Prigozhin, but Wagner’s commander would go to Belarus, rather than return to the fighting in Ukraine, he said.
Peskov also said Wagner fighters, who followed Prigozhin in his uprising, would not be prosecuted, given their “service at the front and those fighters who did not participate can join the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Moscow braced for the arrival of the private army led by the rebellious mercenary commander by erecting checkpoints with armoured vehicles and troops on its southern edge. Red Square was shut down and the mayor urged motorists to stay off some roads.
Wagner’s lightning insurrection appeared to develop with little pushback from Russia’s regular armed forces, raising questions about Putin’s grip on power in the nuclear-armed nation even after the abrupt halt to Wagner’s advance.
Amid the standoff yesterday, Lukashenko negotiated with the mercenary boss to stop Wagner’s troop movement after discussing the issue with Putin.
Prigozhin accepted Lukashenko’s offer to halt the Wagner group’s advance and further steps to de-escalate the tensions
Lukashenko acknowledged the proposed settlement contains security guarantees for Wagner troops, among other terms.
Prigozhin did not say whether the Kremlin responded to his demand to remove Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu.
The Wagner chief will move to neighbouring Belarus as part of the deal and the criminal case against him will be closed, the Kremlin said yesterday.
Prigozhin’s troops who joined him in the uprising will not face prosecution and those who did not will be offered contracts by the defence ministry, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Lukashenko offered to mediate, with Putin’s agreement, because he had known Prigozhin personally for about 20 years, Peskov said. “Avoiding bloodshed, internal confrontation, and clashes with unpredictable results was the highest goal.”
