2023-06-24 23:53:29
BBC News World newsroom
June 24, 2023
image copyrightReuters
Caption,
Yevgeni Prigozhin agreed to stop the advance of his troops.
The leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeni Prigozhin, agreed to stop the advance of his troops through Russian territory and “de-escalate the situation” during talks he held with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Prigozhin announced in a message on Telegram that the caravans that advanced towards Moscow on Saturday would turn around and return to their bases to avoid a bloodbath on both sides.
The Belarusian president’s press office issued a statement saying that “Prigozhin accepted Lukashenko’s proposal to stop Wagner’s movement on Russian territory and other measures to de-escalate tension.”
“It was possible to find an acceptable alternative to de-escalating [la situación] with security guarantees for Wagner PMC combatants”.
The private army of mercenaries who have been fighting on the side of the Russian forces since the start of the invasion of Ukraine revolted against the Kremlin’s military high command on Saturday, advancing into the interior of Russia, in the direction of Moscow.
According to Russian state media, Prigozhin will travel to Belarus and the charges against him and his mercenaries will be dropped to avoid “bloodshed.”
image copyrightReuters
Caption,
Yevgeni Prigozhin and his mercenaries left the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to cheers.
“March of Justice”
In an audio message posted on Telegram, Prigozhin confirmed the return of his troops to their bases, saying: “They wanted to dismantle the Wagner military company. We embarked on a justice march on June 23.”
“In 24 hours, we reached 200 km from Moscow. In this time we did not spill a single drop of the blood of our fighters,” he continued.
image copyrightReuters
Caption,
Members of the Wagner Group arrived in Rostov-on-Don, in southwestern Russia.
“Now the time has come when blood might be spilled. Understanding the responsibility (for the possibility) of Russian blood spilling on one side, our columns are turning around and returning to the camps as planned.”
Lukashenko’s press service assured that the negotiations were carried out with the consent of Vladimir Putin.
Russia has been using the territory of Belarus to launch attacks against Ukraine since the start of the invasion 16 months ago.
The agreement takes place after the authorities in Moscow implemented an anti-terrorism operation this Saturday in anticipation of the arrival of the Wagner Group troops in the capital, which implied the closure of some public spaces such as Red Square, among other measures.
image copyrightGetty Images
Caption,
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the nation in a televised address on Saturday morning.
“Stab in the Back”
Earlier, in a televised address, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the leader of the Wagner group of treason, embarking on an armed rebellion and giving his country what he called “a stab in the back.”
Putin’s address came after a massive Wagner military column seized the capital of Russia’s Rostov-on-Don region, an important enclave because it houses the headquarters of the Russian command involved in repelling Ukrainian counter-offensives in southern Ukraine.
Prigozhin’s close ties to the Kremlin and Putin himself go back years.
In fact, the Wagner Group is believed to have defended Russian interests in Syria and Libya, as well as Sudan or the Central African Republic.
In recent months, Prigozhin has repeatedly accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov of incompetence and deliberately undersupplying Wagner units fighting in Ukraine.
The straw that seems to have broken the camel’s back is the accusation that the Russian military launched a deadly missile attack against Wagner’s troops in the rear of the war in Ukraine.
The Russian government denied these accusations.
A shame for Putin
Michael O’Hanlon, an analyst at the US think tank Brookings Institution, told the BBC that he believes the deal to halt the advance of Wagner’s troops “makes sense” because the situation in Russia was “extremely risky” from the point of view of view of Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“The idea that Prigozhin could somehow spark a mass revolt against Putin is really a fairy tale,” O’Hanlon said.
However, this remains a “very critical and dangerous time in Russia,” the expert opined.
Several questions remain, too, including what else Prigozhin was offered and what prospects he has of staying alive, O’Hanlon says.
image copyrightAFP
For his part, the BBC Security correspondent, Frank Gardner, affirms that the agreement negotiated by Lukashenko leaves the score at “one to zero for President Putin.”
The BBC correspondent believes that Prigozhin expected people to “rise up and join him”, but that did not happen.
But Gardner acknowledges that it is “deeply shameful” for Putin that Prigozhin was able to cross the border and seize Russia’s Southern District military headquarters without anyone opposing him.
Putin “is not someone who is going to forgive this,” says the journalist.
“I think that Prigozhin’s military and political future must now be over.”
President Putin’s spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, added that those Wagner fighters who want to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry can do so.
“Total Chaos”
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, published a video message late on Saturday commenting on what happened during this day.
image copyrightEPA
Caption,
Zelensky said that this Saturday “all Russian bandits, mercenaries and oligarchs” saw how easy it is to “capture Russian cities.”
“Today is a day when there should definitely be no silence. And we definitely need leadership. Today the world saw that Russia’s bosses control nothing. Nothing at all. Total chaos. Total absence of any predictability. And it’s happening on territory Russian, which is fully loaded with weapons”.
Zelensky added that this Saturday “all Russian bandits, mercenaries and oligarchs” saw how easy it is to “capture Russian cities.”
Once again, he urged Western partners to support Ukraine and help it “protect Europe” with planes and weapons.
Then, switching from Ukrainian to Russian, he said: “The man from the Kremlin is obviously very afraid and is probably hiding somewhere, not showing himself. I’m sure he’s not in Moscow anymore.”
“He knows what he is afraid of because he himself created this threat. All the evil, all the losses, all the hate, he is the one who propagates it,” the president said.
James Nixey, head of the Russia-Eurasia program at Chatham House think tank in London, believes Ukraine will benefit from Saturday’s events.
Nixey says Ukraine is likely to continue to put pressure on Russia to try to create implosions inside the country.
In his opinion, this Saturday was the worst day for Vladimir Putin in all his years of presidency.
“You’re losing this war [de Ucrania]Nixey opined.
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