MOSCOW (Russia): Russia’s Wagner mercenaries have left the Lipetsk region after its chief Yevgeny Prigozhin decided to halt his forces’ march to Moscow, according to CNN citing the regional government.
“Units of PMC “Wagner,” which stopped the day before in the Lipetsk region, left the territory of the region,” it said on Telegram.
It comes after the governor of the southern Russian region of Voronezh said Wagner units are continuing their withdrawal and forces are departing “steadily and without incident.”
Earlier, a Kremlin spokesperson on Saturday said the charges against the Wagner leader who led the armed mutiny against the country’s military leadership would be dropped, The New York Times reported
The Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S Peskov said Prigozhin will go to Belarus, and the fighters who rebelled with him would not be prosecuted by law given their “service at the front.”
“Wagner fighters who did not participate in the mutiny can sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense,” New York Times quoted Peskov as saying.
This comes shortly after the Belarusian president stated he was in talks with Prigozhin about an agreement to “de-escalate tensions.”
Taking to Twitter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus wrote, “At 9 p.m. tonight, the Presidents spoke again by phone. The President of Belarus Lukashenko informed the President of Russia about the results of negotiations w/ the leader of the Wagner Group. President Putin thanked his counterpart for the work done.”
According to several videos circulating on social media, Wagner’s armored vehicles started departing the military center of Rostov-on-Don in southwest Russia on Saturday night.
However, Prighozin did not mention about it earlier whether his forces were backtracking from the southern city of Rostov-on-Don as well, where critical military and civilian buildings were seized.
On Saturday morning, Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, in a Telegram post, announced that his men had crossed the border from Ukraine into southern Russia and were ready to go “all the way” against the Russian military, TASS News Agency reported.
He said he and his men would destroy anyone who stood in their way. “But we will destroy anyone who stands in our way,” he said, adding, “We are moving forward and will go until the end.”
After Prigozhin’s statement, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in a televised address to the nation said the “armed mutiny” by the Wagner Group is a “stab in the back”, vowing to punish those who were on the “path of treason” or anyone who takes up arms against the Russian military. (ANI)