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🔴 Live: Wagner group withdraws from Russian positions after ending rebellion
Russian paramilitary Wagner group pulled its fighters from Rostov-on-Don, where they had seized the military headquarters, the regional governor said on Sunday. Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin halted his troops’ advance on Moscow late Saturday and said he would leave for Belarus to avoid facing charges. Read our liveblog for the latest developments in the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
Issued on: 25/06/2023 – 07:49
Modified: 25/06/2023 – 18:28
8 min
Fighters of Wagner private mercenary group pull out of the headquarters of the Southern Military District to return to base, in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24, 2023.02:44
Fighters of Wagner private mercenary group pull out of the headquarters of the Southern Military District to return to base, in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24, 2023. © Reuters
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Yinka OYETADE
5:51pm: Erdogan tells NATO chief that Sweden must stop PKK supporters’ Stockholm protests for approval of alliance membership bid
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in a phone call on Sunday that Sweden must stop protests in Stockholm by supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is outlawed in Turkey, for membership to NATO.
Erdogan told Stoltenberg that Turkey had a constructive attitude, but Sweden’s change of terrorism laws to meet demands from Ankara was “meaningless” while PKK supporters hold protests in the country, the Turkish presidency said in a statement.
5:18pm: Ukraine sees Wagner revolt as sign West need not fear Russia on military aid for Kyiv
Ukrainian authorities see the Wagner Group’s aborted rebellion against Russia’s military leadership as evidence that the West need not not fear President Vladimir Putin’s government when considering whether to supply more weapons to Kyiv.
FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg reports:
03:06
4:42pm: China says it supports Russia in ‘protecting national stability’
China on Sunday said it supported Russia in “protecting national stability”, in Beijing’s first official remarks on the short-lived armed uprising led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group.
The uprising was Russia’s “internal affair”, the ministry said.
Beijing had until late Sunday refrained from commenting on the weekend’s turmoil in Russia, which saw Prigozhin agree to go into exile after President Vladimir Putin accepted an amnesty deal.
On Sunday, China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko in Beijing.
The two diplomats discussed “China-Russia relations,” Beijing said, as well as “international and regional issues of common concern”.
In its readout of the talks, Moscow said Beijing had “expressed support for the efforts of the leadership of the Russian Federation to stabilise the situation in the country”.
4:22pm: Blinken says Wagner rebellion marks ‘direct challenge’ to Putin
Russia’s crisis involving the Wagner Group’s aborted revolt against the Kremlin exposed “real cracks” in President Vladimir Putin’s authority, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday.
The uprising by Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and a contingent of the mercenary group over the weekend marked “a direct challenge to Putin’s authority”, Blinken told CBS News talk show “Face the Nation.”
“So this raises profound questions, it shows real cracks,” the top American diplomat said.
The remarks were the first public declarations about the developments in Russia by the United States, which over the past 24 hours had been intensively engaged in consultations with European allies on the revolt.
Blinken, making the rounds on multiple Sunday talk shows, said it was “too early” to speculate on the impact of the crisis, either on the Kremlin or on the war in Ukraine.
But he deemed it an “extraordinary” series of events, in which a close Putin
ally – who sent his private mercenaries into Ukraine to undertake some of the most brutal fighting of the war – rapidly turned against Russia’s military leadership and threatened the Kremlin.
US spy agencies picked up signs days ago that mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was preparing to rise up and briefed the White House, a full day before it unfolded, the Washington Post and New York Times reported.
1:15pm: Russia says Ukrainian attacks in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia regions repelled
Russia’s defence ministry on Sunday said it had repelled attempted attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported. The ministry also said it had repelled 10 attacks in the Bakhmut area, agencies reported. “Over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s armed forces have continued to attempt offensive action,” the defence ministry said in a statement,
One day earlier, Ukraine had claimed “progress” in the east of the country.
The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.
11:50am: Rebellious Wagner troops not to be prosecuted, those not taking part in uprising to be offered contracts by the Defence Ministry, according to deal with Kremlin
Under the deal announced Saturday by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov with rebellious Wagner Group, Moscow 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.
Mercenary chief Evgeni Prigozhin ordered his troops back to their field camps in Ukraine, where they have been fighting alongside Russian regular soldiers. Prigozhin himself will go to neighbouring Belarus, which has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Charges against him of mounting an armed rebellion will be dropped under a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
10:50am: One civilian killed in Russian shelling of southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, governor says
A civilian man died after Russian forces shelled Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, local governor said on Sunday. “One of the shells exploded right in the middle of the room,” Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app. He said another woman was trapped under the rubble but alive.
Ukrainian authorities also reported that Russians shelled the south of Dnipropetrovsk region during the night, injuring one person and damaging three private houses.
This information could not be independently verified.
Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson and parts of the Kherson region in November after months of Russian occupation, but Russian forces regularly shell the city and surrounding areas from the opposite side of Dnipro River.
10:25am: Wagner forces leaving Russia’s southern Voronezh region ‘without incidents’, governor says
Wagner fighters were leaving Russia’s southern Voronezh region Sunday, the local governor said, after the group halted a dramatic rebellion to bring down Russia’s top brass and U-turned on a march to Moscow.
“The movement of Wagner units through the Voronezh region is ending,” Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev said. “It is running normally and without incidents,” Gusev added, saying travel restrictions imposed during Saturday’s operation against the rebellion will be lifted once “the situation is finally resolved.”
8:40am: Kyiv troops not able to benefit from Wagner rebellion
Ukrainian troops have not been able to take advantage of the Wagner troops’ rebellion in Russia “because the Wagner troops who left for Russia were not on the front lines anymore and had been pulled back from the battle for Bakhmut”, says FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg from Kyiv.
03:10
8:20am: US spy agencies detected signs of Russia revolt days prior, media reveal
US spy agencies picked up signs days ago that mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was preparing to rise up against Russia’s defence establishment, US media reported on Saturday.
Intelligence officials conducted briefings at the White House, the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill about the potential for unrest in nuclear-armed Russia a full day before it unfolded, the Washington Post and New York Times reported.
Spy agencies first began tracking indications that Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenary force intended to move against the Russian military leadership in mid-June, the Post said. The Times said the information was both solid and alarming by mid-week, leading to the flurry of briefings.
US spy agencies believe that Putin himself was informed that Prigozhin, once a close ally, was plotting his rebellion at least a day before it occurred, the Post reported.
02:33
8:05am: Russia’s Rostov-on-Don calm after Prigozhin departure
The situation around the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don was calm and street traffic resumed, RIA state news agency said on Sunday after Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenaries left the city.
In a video on the agency’s Telegram messaging app, which it said was taken in the city of Rostov-on-Don, a man was sweeping a street and cars were moving along another street.
These reports could not be independently verified.
Late on Saturday, Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, was seen leaving the district military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don after halting a rebellion against Russia’s military establishment.
7:20am: Chaos in Russia works in our advantage, Kyiv says
Chaos in Russia works to Kyiv’s advantage, Ukraine officials said on Saturday, but it remains to be seen whether President Volodymyr Zelensky and his army can capitalise on the disorder caused this weekend as mercenaries marched towards Moscow.
“Today the world saw that the masters of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Just complete chaos,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address, urging Ukraine’s allies to use the moment and send more weapons to Kyiv.
The Prigozhin unrest, the biggest internal challenge to President Vladimir Putin as Russia’s paramount leader for 23 years, has spurred global security concerns and a frenzy of calls between Washington and its allies to coordinate actions.
“Any chaos behind the enemy lines works in our interests,” State-run Ukrinform news agency quoted Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba as saying on Saturday.
6:56am: Traffic restrictions still in place in Russia’s Moscow and Tula regions
Traffic restrictions remained on the M-4 “Don” major expressway in the Moscow and Tula regions on Sunday, the Federal Road Agency said on the Telegram messaging app.
“According to earlier decisions made in the regions, the restriction of traffic along the M-4 ‘Don’ (highway) in the Tula and Moscow regions remains in place,” the agency said.
Heavily armed Russian mercenaries who had advanced most of the way to Moscow on Saturday then halted their approach, de-escalating a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power, in a move their leader said would avoid bloodshed.
Key developments from Saturday, June 24:
The head of the Wagner group will go to Belarus and will not face charges after calling off his troops’ advance on Moscow, the Russian government said, easing the country’s most serious security crisis in decades.
The feud between Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russia’s military brass came to a crisis on Saturday, with Wagner forces capturing a key army headquarters in southern Russia and then heading north to threaten the capital.
Within hours of Prigozhin’s about-face, the Kremlin announced he would leave for Belarus and Russia would not prosecute him or Wagner members.
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It had been a dramatic day, with President Vladimir Putin warning against civil war, Moscow telling locals to stay off the streets and Kyiv revelling in the chaos engulfing its enemy.
The tide shifted suddenly when Prigozhin made the stunning announcement that his troops were “turning our columns around and going back to field camps” to avoid bloodshed in the Russian capital.
Prigozhin, who has feuded bitterly with Moscow’s military leadership even as his outfit led parts of Russia’s Ukraine offensive, said he understood the importance of the moment and did not want to “spill Russian blood”.
