The Wagner Group private military company (PMC) is returning to its “field camps,” its leader Evgeny Prigozhin announced late on Saturday. His units staged a mutiny overnight, seizing control of multiple military and administrative sites in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, as well as launching an advance towards Moscow.
The insurrection had reached the brink of major bloodshed, Prigozhin said, announcing that Wagner’s advancing columns will return to their camps “according to plan.”
“They wanted to disband PMC Wagner. On June 23, we went on a March of Justice in a day. We advanced on Moscow just 200km short, and during this time we did not shed a single drop of the blood of our fighters,” he claimed.
During the mutiny, however, the private military outfit reportedly downed multiple aircraft and repeatedly skirmished with Russian forces.
The announcement comes shortly after the press service of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced he had held successful negotiations with Prigozhin. The talks were held in coordination with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Minsk.
“Evgeny Prigozhin accepted the proposal of President Alexander Lukashenko to stop the movement of the armed men of Wagner in Russia and to take further steps to de-escalate tension,” a Belarusian presidency statement declared. It added that Prigozhin had been offered “an advantageous and acceptable option for resolving the situation, with security guarantees for the Wagner PMC fighters.”
The Wagner commander himself, however, has not mentioned the talks with Lukashenko in his latest statements.