By Euronews with AP/AFP
The head of the private Russian military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, will move to neighbouring Belarus as part of a deal to defuse tensions. and the criminal case against him will be closed, it was announced last night.
Prigozhin’s sudden move towards Moscow briefly threw the immediate future of the Putin government into question, but it was only a matter of hours before the agreement was struck and his troops turned back.
13:19
Welcome to our live coverage of the fallout from last night’s apparent mutiny in Russia by the Wagner mercenary group. Here’s what you need to know:
- Wagner paramilitary forces led by boss Yevgeny Prigozhin first took control of the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and then began driving north on the main highway towards Moscow.
- New security measures were put in place in the capital, and local residents were told not to travel.
- The Kremlin accused the boss of private paramilitary company Wagner of attempting to stage a coup. Prigozhin insisted his forces were “patriots” who had the support of the Russian people because of the mishandling of the war in Ukraine
- Before Wagner forces reached Moscow, it was announced that a deal had been struck for Prigozhin to abandon his apparent plan leave Russia for Belarus in exchange for the lifting of criminal charges against him.
- The deal appeared to defuse a dramatically escalating crisis that represented the most significant challenge to President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the episode proved that in Russia there’s “so much chaos, no lie can hide it.”
15:24
Blinken: Wagner coup reveals fissures in Russian power structure
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been doing the media rounds on the American Sunday morning news shows, and is naturally answering questions about the meaning of yesterday’s action by the Wagner group. Here’s the assessment he gave to CNN:
14:55
Belarusian opposition leader decries Prigozhin deal
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has been exiled from Belarus since she ran against and quite possibly defeated Alexander Lukashenko in the country’s 2020 election, has weighed in on the deal that will see her country hosting Yvgeny Prigozhin in return for the dropping of Russian charges against him:
14:30
Russia says it fought off new Ukrainian assaults
Russia claimed on Sunday to have repelled several assaults by Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv announced yesterday evening that it had launched new offensives and was making progress.
The Russian army “successfully repelled” attacks in four areas of the front, notably in the Donetsk region, but also in Zaporizhzhia, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement, adding that ten of these attacks had been repelled near Bakhmut.
Zaporizhzhia is of particular importance because it is host to Europe’s largest active nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian troops and which Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Russia may be planning to sabotage with potentially disastrous consequences. (AFP)
14:05
Prigozhin’s whereabouts still unclear
There are still no reports of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin arriving in Belarus after he reached a deal with the Kremlin to go into exile and ended his rebellion.
Many other questions remained unanswered on Sunday morning, including whether Prigozhin would be joined in exile by any of his Wagner Group’s troops and what role, if any, he might have there.
Prigozhin, who sent out a series of audio and video updates during his revolt, has gone silent since the Kremlin announced that the deal had been brokered for him to end his march toward Moscow and leave Russia.
Meanwhile, life in Moscow appears oddly normal. There is little sign of the counterterrorism alert that nominally remains in place after Yevgeny Prigozhin launched his revolt. Crowds swarmed the downtown area of the Russian capital on a sunny day and street cafés were packed with customers. Traffic had returned to normal and roadblocks and checkpoints were removed. (AP)
13:38
North Korea backs Kremlin after Wagner mutiny
The government of North Korea has offered its full support to Russia after the mutiny by the Wagner paramilitary group, state media reported on Sunday.
At a meeting with the Russian ambassador to Pyongyang, North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Im Chon-Il “expressed his firm belief that the recent armed rebellion in Russia would be successfully suppressed”, North Korea’s KCNA news agency reported.
North Korea has described the circumstances of the Ukrainian conflict as a US “proxy war” aimed at destroying Russia, and has condemned Western military aid to Kyiv.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia has long vetoed new sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear programme and repeated missile launches. (AFP)
12:52
Wagner leaves Lipetsk
The forces of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner have left the Lipetsk region, south of Moscow, where they entered on Saturday on their aborted drive towards the Russian capital, the local authorities announced on Sunday.
“The units of the Wagner paramilitary group, which stopped yesterday in the Lipetsk region, have left the territory,” the regional authorities’ press service said on Telegram.
The regional capital of Lipetsk is 400km from Moscow. (AFP)
12:43
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