Russia-Ukraine updates: Wagner boss orders troops to pull back

Russian media report several helicopters and a military communications plane were downed by Wagner troops during the short-lived uprising.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin previously said his forces had taken control of the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, as well as other military facilities in the city without any deaths or even “a single gunshot”.

The Kremlin referred the question about the losses to the defence ministry, which has kept mum.

The Kremlin says it is not aware of any change in President Vladimir Putin’s attitude towards Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu after the rebellion by Wagner Group’s chief demanding his ouster.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch-turned-warlord who leads the private Wagner army, has for weeks publicly denounced Shoigu and Russia’s top general Valery Gerasimov.

In fierce social media tirades, he accused them of incompetence and blamed them for the multitude of battlefield failures Russian forces have suffered in Ukraine.

The rebellious Russian mercenary commander who ordered his troops to march on Moscow before abruptly reversing course will move to neighbouring Belarus and not face prosecution.

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 defence ministry.

President Putin called the rebellion a “betrayal” and “treason”. In allowing Prigozhin and his forces to go free, Peskov said Putin’s “highest goal” was “to avoid bloodshed and internal confrontation with unpredictable results”.

The Kremlin has said that a mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group would not affect Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, a top official said.

Government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “out of the question” that Wagner’s aborted rebellion would affect Russia’s military campaign against Kyiv.

Wagner group mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and all of his fighters vacated Russia’s military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, the RIA news agency reports.

Current events in Russia are an internal matter which do not pose any threat to Poland, leaders in Warsaw have said on, although Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said increased tension on the border with Belarus was a possibility.

“We absolutely believe that it is an internal matter for Russia … we are not ordering any increased level of readiness from our army,” President Andrzej Duda said after a meeting at the National Security Bureau.

A criminal case against Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin will be dropped, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Members of Wagner paramilitary force who had joined what Moscow called an “armed rebellion” would not be prosecuted, Peskov added. “We have always respected their heroic deeds at the front.”

Ukraine war has produced “entitlement-carrying actors” who have now clashed, moving the military action inside Russia, analysts say.

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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 has said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday that Lukashenko had offered to mediate, with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s agreement, because he had known Prigozhin personally for approximately 20 years.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that a revolt by Wagner mercenary troops in Russia exposed complete chaos in the country.

“Today, the world saw that the bosses of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Complete chaos. Complete absence of any predictability,” Zelenskyy said on Saturday in his nightly video address.

Addressing Putin while switching from Ukrainian into Russian, Zelenskyy said, “The longer your troops stay on Ukrainian land, the more devastation they will bring to Russia.”

Rebel mercenary Wagner group have started pulling back fighters and equipment from the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, after its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin halted the fighters’ march on Moscow.

Reporters from AFP and Reuters at the scene saw a tank, several cargo trucks and several minivans carrying fighters leave the military headquarters the group had occupied earlier.

Authorities in the southern Russian region of Lipetsk began lifting restrictions after the mercenary group Wagner, which had entered the province earlier, announced it would fall back.

“We are beginning to lift restrictions introduced today,” Governor Igor Artamonov said on Telegram on Saturday.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had a second telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin to inform him of the results of his talks with Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, Belarusian state news agency Belta reports.

Earlier, Lukashenko’s office said he had spoken to Prigozhin with Putin’s approval, and that the mutinous head of the Wagner militia had agreed to stop the movements of his fighters, some of whom were advancing on Moscow in a convoy, and de-escalate

The news that Wagner forces will be turning back to base after they had been advancing towards Moscow shows that some very serious negotiations would have had to go on behind closed doors between Lukashenko and Prigozhin, said journalist Daniel Hawkins, speaking to Al Jazeera from the Russian capital.

This deal “puts Prigozhin in a position of risk and weakness. He had the tactical advantage and the element of surprise in his movement from Rostov to Moscow. So it’s evident that for him to agree to these terms some serious negotiations would have had to go on behind closed doors,” Hawkins said.

This deal would have required an element of trust that Prigozhin does not have with the Russian top brass and with Russian generals, he added.

“It is worth noting that Lukashenko and Prigozhin are both close Putin allies. Lukashenko has been the president of Belarus since the republic’s independence. Likewise, Prigozhin has been a close associate of Putin since the 1990s, where he got the nickname ‘Putin’s chef’ or ‘caterer’.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that his forces could protect Europe from Russian forces, but added, “Now, is the time to provide all the weapons necessary for defence.”

Kyiv needed F-16 fighter jets and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), he said. “The security of Europe’s eastern flank depends only on our defence.”

Ukraine’s military has said that its forces had made advances near Bakhkmut, one of the focal points of fighting on the eastern front, and in an area further south.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar, writing on Telegram on Saturday, said an offensive was launched near a of group of villages ringing Bakhmut — the town taken by Russia’s Wagner mercenary forces last month after months of fighting.

“In all these areas, we have made advances,” Maliar wrote.

Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, commander of the Tavria, or southern, front, said Ukrainian forces had liberated an area near Krasnohorivka, west of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk. He said the area had been under Russian control since separatist forces backed by Moscow took control of it in 2014.

Wagner chief Prigozhin says his fighters, who were advancing towards Moscow, were turning around and returning to their bases in order to avoid bloodshed.

In an audio message released by his press service, Prigozhin said, “They wanted to disband the Wagner military company. We embarked on a march of justice on June 23. In 24 hours we got to within 200 km [125 miles] of Moscow. In this time, we did not spill a single drop of our fighters’ blood.”

“Now, the moment has come when blood could be spilled. 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.”

Israel has urged its citizens to reconsider their stay in Russia or their travel plans there.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to convene security chiefs later in the day, the Israeli Defence Ministry said in a statement.

There are an estimated 60,000-70,000 Israelis presently in Russia and around 500,000 Jews who are eligible for immigration to Israel.

Wagner boss Prigozhin says he has ordered his fighters, who had been advancing on Moscow, to turn around and return to their bases in order to avoid bloodshed.

Prigozhin said his fighters had advanced 200km (124 miles) towards Moscow in the last 24 hours.

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed that Russia’s President 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,” Zelenskyy said in his daily address to the nation, adding that Putin has “created this threat himself”.