Wagner mercenaries enter Lipetsk region en route to Moscow
The governor of Russia’s Lipetsk province said Saturday afternoon that Wagner Group mercenaries had entered the region, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) from Moscow. Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Wagner mercenaries of “treason” in a live address to the nation after the group’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin called for an armed uprising to oust the defense minister on Friday.
Well, here is an unexpected development?
I have just finished reading the france24 link in comment #52. This link is a running list of developments in this crisis showing hour and minute of each event (I think they said at Greenich Mean Time + 2 hours, I will now copy the last 2 announcements for this Saturday:
“7:44pm: Prigozhin says Wagner fighters will return to base, so to not ‘spill Russian blood’
Wagner Group fighters who surged most of the way to Moscow have agreed to turn back to avoid bloodshed, their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday, in a de-escalation of what had become a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power.
The Wagner Group fighters were already most of the way to the Moscow, having captured the city of Rostov-on-Don and set off on a 1,100 kilometre race to the capital.
In an audio message, Prigozhin said the fighters would return to base because of the risk of blood being spilled.
‘We are turning our columns around and going back to field camps,’ Prigozhin announced. He said he understood the importance of the moment and did not want to ‘spill Russian blood’.
Prigozhin also said that Wagner fighters had advanced to within 200 kilometres of Moscow.
Earlier, he said his men were on a ‘march for justice’ to remove corrupt and incompetent Russian military commanders.”
“7:25pm: Belarus says Wagner chief agrees to halt fighters’ movements in Russia
The office of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Saturday that he had brokered a deal with Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin who agreed to halt the further movement of the group’s fighters across Russia.
The announcement was carried on the official Telegram channel of the Belarusian presidency.
So now comes the big question. Has Prigozhin changed his mind or is this the next step for some plan or deal he has worked out with Putin or Ukraine? I am sure many of us were expecting him to march or fight his way into Moscow, I guess some of us can now make up the sleep we lost last night.