The rebellious Russian mercenary commander who ordered his troops to march on Moscow earlier than abruptly reversing course will transfer to neighboring Belarus and never face prosecution, the Kremlin mentioned Saturday, as a part of a deal to defuse a disaster that represented essentially the most vital problem to President Vladimir Putin in his greater than 20 years in energy.
The costs towards Yevgeny Prigozhin for mounting an armed revolt can be dropped and the troops who joined him additionally won’t be prosecuted, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov introduced, and fighters from his Wagner Group who didn’t participate within the rebellion can be supplied contracts by the Defense Ministry.
Putin had vowed to punish these behind the armed rebellion led by his onetime protege, whose forces seized a key navy facility in southern Russia earlier than advancing on the capital. In a televised speech to the nation, Putin known as the revolt a “betrayal” and “treason.”
In permitting Prigozhin and his forces to go free, Peskov mentioned Putin’s “highest goal” was “to avoid bloodshed and internal confrontation with unpredictable results.”
Moscow had braced for the arrival of the Wagner forces by erecting checkpoints with armored autos and troops on town’s southern edge. Red Square was shut down, and the mayor urged motorists to remain off some roads.
But after the deal was struck, Prigozhin introduced that whereas his males had been simply 120 miles from Moscow, he had determined to retreat to keep away from “shedding Russian blood.” His troops had been ordered again to their discipline camps in Ukraine, the place they’ve been preventing alongside Russian common troopers.
Prigozhin has demanded the ouster of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, lengthy the goal of his withering criticism for his conduct of the struggle in Ukraine. On Friday, he accused forces below Shoigu’s command of attacking Wagner camps and killing “a huge number of our comrades.” The Defense Ministry has denied this.
Prigozhin didn’t say whether or not the Kremlin had responded to his demand. Peskov mentioned the problem couldn’t have been mentioned in the course of the negotiations, which had been carried out by the president of Belarus, and is the “exclusive prerogative of the commander in chief.”
If Putin had been to comply with Shoigu’s ouster, it could possibly be politically damaging for the president after he branded Prigozhin a backstabbing traitor.
Early Saturday, Prigozhin’s personal military appeared to regulate the navy headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a metropolis 660 miles south of Moscow, which runs Russian operations in Ukraine, Britain’s Ministry of Defense mentioned.
A nighttime video from town posted on Russian messaging app channels confirmed individuals cheering Wagner troops as they left Rostov-on-Don. Prigozhin was seen driving one of many autos, and folks greeted him and a few ran to shake his hand as he lowered the window.
Wagner troops and tools additionally had been in Lipetsk province, about 225 miles south of Moscow.
Authorities declared a “counterterrorist regime” in Moscow and its surrounding area, enhancing safety and limiting some motion. On the southern outskirts, troops erected checkpoints, organized sandbags and arrange machine weapons. Crews dug up sections of highways to gradual the march.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin warned that site visitors could possibly be restricted in components of the capital and declared Monday a non-working day for many residents.
The dramatic developments got here precisely 16 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s largest battle since World War II, which has killed tens of hundreds, displaced hundreds of thousands and decreased cities to rubble.
Ukrainians hoped the Russian infighting would create alternatives for its military to take again territory seized by Russian forces.
Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare on the International Institute for Strategic Studies, mentioned that even with a deal, Putin’s place has in all probability been weakened and “these events will have been of great comfort to the Ukrainian government and the military.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned late Saturday, shortly earlier than Prigozhin introduced his retreat, that the march uncovered weak point within the Kremlin and “showed all Russian bandits, mercenaries, oligarchs” that it’s straightforward to seize Russian cities “and, probably, arsenals.”
Switching into Russian in his every day video deal with, Zelenskyy mentioned “the man from the Kremlin” was “very afraid.” He repeated his requires the West to produce Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets and ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles.
Prigozhin had vowed earlier that his fighters, whom he mentioned quantity some 25,000, wouldn’t give up as a result of “we do not want the country to live on in corruption, deceit and bureaucracy.”
“Regarding the betrayal of the motherland, the president was deeply mistaken. We are patriots of our homeland,” he mentioned in an audio message on his Telegram channel.
He posted video of himself on the navy headquarters in Rostov-on-Don and claimed his forces had taken management of the airfield and different navy services within the metropolis with none deaths and even “a single gunshot.”
The short-lived revolt got here as Russia is “fighting the toughest battle for its future,” Putin mentioned, with the West piling sanctions on Moscow and arming Ukraine.
“The entire military, economic and information machine of the West is waged against us,” Putin mentioned.
State-controlled TV networks led their newscasts with Putin’s assertion and reported the tense state of affairs in Rostov-on-Don. Broadcasters additionally carried statements from high Russian officers and lawmakers voicing assist for Putin, condemning Prigozhin and urging him to again down.
Chechnyan strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who prior to now has sided with Prigozhin in his criticisms of Russia’s navy, additionally expressed assist for Putin’s “every word.”
“The mutiny needs to be suppressed,” Kadyrov mentioned.
Wagner troops have performed a vital position within the Ukraine struggle, capturing the japanese metropolis of Bakhmut, an space the place the bloodiest and longest battles have taken place. But Prigozhin has more and more criticized the navy brass, accusing it of incompetence and of ravenous his troops of munitions.
In asserting the revolt, Prigozhin accused Russian forces of attacking the Wagner camps in Ukraine with rockets, helicopter gunships and artillery. He alleged that Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff, ordered the assaults following a gathering with Shoigu by which they determined to destroy the navy contractor.
The Defense Ministry denied attacking the camps.
The 62-year-old Prigozhin, a former convict, has longstanding ties to Putin and gained profitable Kremlin catering contracts that earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef.”
He gained consideration within the U.S. when he and a dozen different Russian nationals had been charged with working a covert social media marketing campaign geared toward fomenting discord forward of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory. Wagner has despatched navy contractors to Libya, Syria, a number of African nations and finally Ukraine.
The revolt appeared more likely to additional hinder Moscow’s struggle effort in Ukraine, as Kyiv’s forces probed Russian defenses within the preliminary levels of a counteroffensive.
Orysia Lutsevych, the top of the Ukraine Forum on the Chatham House suppose tank in London, mentioned the infighting may create confusion and potential division amongst Russian navy forces.
“Russian troops in Ukraine may well now be operating in a vacuum, without clear military instructions, and doubts about whom to obey and follow,″ Lutsevych said. “This creates a unique and unprecedented military opportunity for the Ukrainian army.”
Western nations monitored developments carefully. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke along with his counterparts within the different G7 nations and the European Union’s overseas affairs consultant, his spokesman mentioned, including that Blinken “reiterated that support by the United States for Ukraine will not change.”
Latvia and Estonia, two NATO nations that border Russia, mentioned they had been rising safety at their borders.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”