watch
now
Less
than
24
hours
after
Wagner
Group
mercenaries
took
control
of
the
strategic
southern
city
of
Rostov
and
began
an
armed
convoy
march
towards
Moscow,
Wagner
leader
Yevgeny
Prigozhin
abruptly
announced
late
Saturday
that
his
violent,
attempted
insurrection
was
over.
“The
moment
has
come
when
blood
may
spill. That’s
why,
understanding
the
responsibility
for
spilling
Russian
blood
on
one
of
the
sides,
we
are
turning
back
our
convoys
and
going
back
to
field
camps
according
to
the
plan,”
Prigozhin
said
on
an
official
Telegram
channel.
Within
a
few
hours
of
the
statement,
Wagner
mercenaries
in
Rostov
were
filmed
climbing
into
their
trucks
and
departing
the
city.
As
they
did,
civilians
took
selfies
with
the
Wagner
troops
and
cheered
for
them.
The
apparent
end
of
Wagner’s
march
on
Moscow
came
as
the
result
of
a
deal
reached
between
Prigozhin
and
the
Kremlin,
brokered
by
an
unlikely
intermediary:
Belarusian
President
Alexander
Lukashenko.
In
exchange
for
his
turning
back,
the
criminal
case
against
Prigozhin
had
been
dropped,
Kremlin
spokesman
Dmitry
Peskov
told
Russian
reporters,
according
to
the
state
controlled
outlet
TASS.
Prigozhin
himself
“will
go
to
Belarus,”
Peskov
said,
describing
what
appeared
to
be
a
sort
of
official
exile.
Wagner
mercenaries
who
participated
in
Prigozhin’s
“walk”
would
not
be
prosecuted,
said
Peskov,
citing
their
service
to
Russia
so
far
in
the
Ukraine
war.
Instead,
they
would
be
given
the
opportunity
to
sign
contracts
to
join
the
Russian
military,
ostensibly
to
return
to
the
fight
in
Ukraine,
TASS
reported.
At
first
glance,
the
deal
appeared
to
signal
the
end
of
the
Wagner
Group,
and
the
integration
of
its
fighters
into
the
Russian
armed
forces.
Peskov
also
said
Russian
President
Vladimir
Putin
would
not
be
delivering
an
address
or
live
comments
on
the
events
of
the
past
24
hours.
Putin’s
absence
from
the
public
eye
as
his
grip
on
power
faced
its
greatest
challenge
was
yet
another
remarkable
detail
of
the
failed
insurrection.
Soldiers
in
the
Donetsk
region
of
Ukraine
on
June
21,
2023.
Ercin
Erturk
|
Anadolu
Agency
|
Getty
Images
