Wagner Group Russia Coup Updates: Putin, Lukashenko hold another call after thwarted mutiny

The EU, the US and allies are paying very close attention to Russia after this incredibly chaotic 24 hours.

The Pentagon issued a statement earlier, saying Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin had spoken in the past hours with defence ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom to discuss the situation.

"The United States will stay in close coordination with allies and partners as the situation continues to develop," the statement said.

Hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the Wagner group for their "armed rebellion" and vowed to punish those who were on the "path of treason", Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the mercenary group, said that the Russian President is "deeply mistaken" and the group is a patriot, the Washington Post reported.

He was referring to Putin's remarks alleging that the Wagner group betrayed Russia by "staging hostilities" inside the country.

The rebellious Russian mercenary commander who ordered his troops to march on Moscow before abruptly reversing course will move to neighboring Belarus and not face prosecution, the Kremlin said Saturday, as part of a deal to defuse a crisis that represented the most significant challenge to President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power.

The charges against Yevgeny Prigozhin for mounting an armed rebellion will be dropped and the troops who joined him also will not be prosecuted, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced, and fighters from his Wagner Group who did not take part in the uprising will be offered contracts by the Defense Ministry.

US spy agencies picked up intelligence in mid-June indicating that Prigozhin was planning armed action against the Russian defense establishment, reports Washington Post

There likely were few, if any, Wagner troops on the front line of the war with Ukraine before the apparent rebellion, said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program, cites Washington Post.

After the fight for Bakhmut, the troops had likely been relieved in late May or early June, he said, and did not control the front lines. Troops from the Russian Ministry of Defense did.

The military coup in Russia helmed by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin came to a sudden halt after a deal was brokered between Moscow and the Wagner mercenary. Prigozhin will now leave for Belarus and all the charges against him and his fighters will be dropped. Read more

All restrictions previously imposed on highways in Russia have been lifted, the TASS news agency said early on Sunday, citing the Federal Road Agency.

Heavily armed Russian mercenaries who advanced most of the way to Moscow began turning back on Saturday, de-escalating a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin's grip on power, in a move their leader said would avoid bloodshed. 

Though monitors said the Russian internet as a whole remained broadly functional Saturday evening, Russian government news outlet Tass reported that searches for Wagner leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin on Yandex, Russia’s Google equivalent, yielded notices that some results were hidden in accordance with federal law.

All previously imposed restrictions on Russian highways have been lifted, news agency TASS reported. 

"Expectations of a change of leadership in the Russian Ministry of Defense today," news service Al Arabiya claims citing Russian sources.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Russia's Vladimir Putin is likely "very scared" and hiding someplace as rebel mercenaries advance on Moscow.

"The man from the Kremlin is obviously very scared and is probably hiding somewhere," Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation, adding that Putin has "created this threat himself."

Heavily armed Russian mercenaries who advanced most of the way to Moscow halted their approach, de-escalating a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin's grip on power, in a move that their leader said would avoid bloodshed.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former Putin ally and founder of the Wagner army, said his men reached within 125 miles (200 km) of the capital on Saturday. Earlier, Moscow deployed soldiers in preparation for their arrival and told residents to stay indoors.

Mutinous Russian mercenary fighters barrelled towards Moscow on Saturday after seizing a southern city overnight, with Russia's military firing on them from the air but seemingly incapable of slowing their lightning advance. Read more

Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin halted his advance toward Moscow and pulled his fighters back, defusing what had become the biggest threat to Vladimir Putin’s grip on Russia in his almost quarter-century rule.

As part of a deal to end the uprising the Russian president had personally guaranteed that Prigozhin would be allowed to leave for neighboring Belarus and authorities would drop criminal mutiny charges against him and his fighters, according to the Kremlin.

One thing that Surprised me about the “Wagner Coup” was the amount of Heavy Equipment they have which I and many other Account had no clue about such as at least 3 Pantsir-1 Air Defense Systems, 2 T-90Ss, and several dozen BMPs and BTRs; although I am wondering where their Air Asset were since we know they were given a number of Attack Helicopters and Fixed-Wing Aircraft by the Russian MoD, tweets OSINTdefender.

After the rebellion launched by the Russian mercenary group Wagner against Moscow, AFP looks back at the previous biggest threats survived by the Kremlin since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Read more

All restrictions previously imposed on highways in Russia have been lifted, the TASS news agency said early on Sunday, citing the Federal Road Agency.

Heavily armed Russian mercenaries who advanced most of the way to Moscow began turning back on Saturday, de-escalating a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin's grip on power, in a move their leader said would avoid bloodshed.

Fighters from the Wagner mercenary group have left the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don with their leader Yevegeny Prigozhin, the regional governor said early Sunday.

"A Wagner column left Rostov and headed to their field camps," governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram. On Saturday they seized control of a key military base there.

After the rebellion launched by the Russian mercenary group Wagner against Moscow, AFP looks back at the previous biggest threats survived by the Kremlin since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Read full report here

Ukrainian minister of defense Oleksii Reznikov warned Russian soldiers in Ukraine that they have been "betrayed" by their nation — and should pack up and abandon the war effort.

Reznikov urged Russian fighters to leave Ukraine because they "have been lied to and betrayed," he tweeted.

The Kremlin said Saturday that it had agreed a deal with the mercenary group Wagner, which has openly challenged the Russian authorities, to avoid further bloodshed.

"Avoiding bloodshed, internal confrontation, and clashes with unpredictable results was the highest goal," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko's mediating efforts were aimed at achieving that goal.

Wagner mercenary force chief Yevgeny Prigozhin will move to Belarus under a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to end an armed mutiny that Prigozhin had led against Russia's military leadership, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

Wagner troops won't face punishment for rebellion as criminal case against their chief is closed, Kremlin spokesman says.

Fighters of the mutinous Wagner mercenary force started pulling out of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday night.