LAST UPDATE | 25 Jun 2023
US CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS were reportedly briefed on a build-up of Wagner forces days before their commander claimed the attacks which sparked their rebellion against Russia took place.
Yevgeny Prigozhin said his mercenary unit’s camps in Ukraine had been attacked by rival forces from the Russian military on Friday, leading to them taking over the strategic city of Rostov-on-Don and marching towards Moscow before a deal was agreed for them to withdraw.
But CNN and the New York Times are reporting that US intelligence briefings on Wagner building troops near the Russian border were taking place from earlier in the week.
Wagner troops have played a crucial role in the Ukraine war, capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut, but Prigozhin has increasingly criticised the military top brass, accusing it of incompetence and of starving his troops of munitions.
The brief revolt, which saw Wagner Group soldiers move unimpeded for hundreds of miles towards Moscow, fizzled out after Prigozhin reached a deal with the Kremlin to go into exile and sounded the retreat.
Under the deal announced yesterday by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Prigozhin will go to neighbouring Belarus, which has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with charges against him of mounting an armed rebellion dropped.
The government also said it would not prosecute Wagner fighters who took part, while those who did not join in were to be offered contracts by the Defence Ministry.
Prigozhin ordered his troops back to their field camps in Ukraine, where they have been fighting alongside Russian regular soldiers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had vowed to punish those behind the armed uprising led by his one-time protege, calling the rebellion a “betrayal” and “treason” during a televised address.
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”.
Some observers said the Russian leader’s strong man image had taken a hit with former US ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst telling CNN: “Putin has been diminished for all time by this affair.”
Moscow had braced for the arrival of the Wagner forces by erecting checkpoints with armoured vehicles and troops on the city’s southern edge.
About 3,000 Chechen soldiers were pulled from fighting in Ukraine and rushed there early yesterday, state television in Chechnya reported.
Russian troops armed with machine guns put up checkpoints on Moscow’s southern outskirts. Crews dug up sections of highways to slow the march.
Wagner troops advanced to just 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Moscow, according to Prigozhin.
But after the deal was struck, he announced that he had decided to retreat to avoid “shedding Russian blood”.
Ukrainians hoped the Russian infighting would create opportunities for their army to take back territory seized by Russian forces.
“These events will have been of great comfort to the Ukrainian government and the military,” said Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
He said that even with a deal, Putin’s position has probably been weakened.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late on Saturday, shortly before Prigozhin announced his retreat, that the march exposed weakness in the Kremlin and “showed all Russian bandits, mercenaries, oligarchs” that it is easy to capture Russian cities “and, probably, arsenals”.
An “anti-terrorist operation regime” was still in force in Moscow this morning, a day after mutinous Wagner mercenaries threatened to storm the Russian capital.
Prigozhin’s whereabouts were unknown on Sunday.
Prigozhin, who was updating the public on Wagner’s mutiny via audio messages on Telegram yesterday, had not yet said when he will leave his country for Kremlin-allied Belarus.
The anti-terrorist regime was introduced in Moscow yesterday, as Prigozhin’s forces appeared to advance on the capital, with authorities asking residents to limit travel.
Moscow authorities also said that a day off work introduced to curb movement around the city on Monday would remain in place for security reasons.
In the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, which Wagner fighters left late yesterday after taking the main army HQ there, traffic resumed as normal, Russian state media reported.
It showed workers clearing the streets outside the military headquarters and outside the local circus gates, where a tank had got stuck the day before.
Authorities in the Kaluga region, south of Moscow, said yesterday they were starting to lift road restrictions introduced to stop the Wagner rebellion.
In the southern city of Voronezh, where the army said it was leading “combat” a day earlier, emergency services they put out a huge fire at an oil depot that burned during the mutiny.
Authorities had not explained the cause of the fire, with images on social media showing a large black cloud of smoke.
Some Russian media reported there was a helicopter nearby before an explosion in the area.
Wagner fighters were leaving Russia’s southern Voronezh region this morning, the local governor said, after the group halted a dramatic rebellion.
Little is known about what happened in Voronezh region yesterday, where Russia said the army was deployed and led “combat” operations.
A huge unexplained fire raged at an oil depot in the city during the mutiny.
“The movement of Wagner units through the Voronezh region is ending,” Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev said.
The movement “is running normally and without incidents,” Gusev added, saying travel restrictions imposed during yesterday’s operation against the mutiny will be lifted once “the situation is finally resolved.”
Gusev said authorities will inform residents about compensation for damage and thanked them for their “endurance, firmness and reason”.
Yesterday, he had called for people in Voronezh to stay at home and expressed support for President Vladimir Putin.
-With additional reporting from © AFP 2023
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