Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russian Mercenary group, Wagner, has announced his forces will be retreating from its march towards Moscow.
On Saturday morning, June 24, Wagner forces took over military bases in Russia in an attempted coup d’etat saying it wanted to change Russia’s military leadership following an alleged Russian strike on its military base in Ukraine.
The news caused mass hysteria in international media with Putin ordering his forces to prevent the uprising and martial law declared in Moscow.
However, Wagner now says it is retreating.
"They were going to dismantle PMC Wagner. We came out on 23 June to the March of Justice. In a day, we walked to nearly 200km away from Moscow. In this time, we did not spill a single drop of blood of our fighters. Now, 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." Prighozin said June 24 Saturday evening.The President of Belarus, Lukashenko, was in talks with Prigozhin all day and has taken credit for the peace agreement according to reports.
The agreement guarantees security and immunity for fighters of PMC Wagner and removes all criminal charges against Prighozin.
Prigozhin accepted the terms of Lukashenko’s agreement and agreed to halt the movement of his forces and return back to his bases.
It seems that the attempted coup has come to an end, and Prigozhin, along with his men, will return to their bases.
Restrictions on the movement of vehicles have been lifted from the Voronezh region which saw clashes earlier during the coup.
