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Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of a private army of prison recruits and other mercenaries who fought some of the fiercest battles in Russian invasion From Ukraine, he fled prosecution for his failed armed rebellion against the Kremlin and arrived Tuesday in Belarus.
The 62-year-old was exiled Wagner Group It was part of a deal that ended the short-lived rebellion in Russia. President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed that Prigozhin was in Belarus, and said some members of his forces were welcome to stay “for some time” at their own expense.
Prigozhin has not been seen since Saturday, when he waved to well-wishers from a car in the southern city of Rostov. He issued a defiant audio statement on Monday. And on Tuesday morning, a private jet believed to belong to him flew from Rostov to an air base southwest of the Belarusian capital, Minsk, according to FlightRadar24 data.
Meanwhile, Moscow said that preparations were under way for Wagner’s forces, which numbered 25,000 according to Prigozhin, to hand over their heavy weapons to the Russian army. Prigozhin has said such moves are being taken before the July 1 deadline for his fighters to sign contracts – which he opposes – with the Russian military leadership.
Russian authorities also said on Tuesday they had closed a criminal investigation into the uprising and were not charging Prigozhin or his followers with armed rebellion.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to pave the way for charges of financial impropriety against an affiliated organization owned by Prigozhin. Putin told a military gathering that Prigozhin’s Concorde group received 80 billion rubles ($941 million) from a contract to supply the army with food, and that Wagner had received more than 86 billion rubles (more than $1 billion) last year for wages and additional materials. .
“I hope they don’t steal anything or steal not much while they’re doing it,” Putin said, adding that the authorities will look closely at Concorde’s contract.
For years, Prigozhin enjoyed lucrative catering contracts with the Russian government. Police who searched his St. Petersburg office on Saturday said they found 4 billion rubles ($48 million) in trucks outside, according to media reports confirmed by the Wagner boss. He said the money was intended to pay the soldiers’ families.
Prigozhin and his fighters halted the insurgency on Saturday, less than 24 hours after it began and shortly after Putin spoke on national television, calling the leaders of the insurgency, whom he did not name, traitors.
The charge of staging an armed rebellion could have carried a prison sentence of up to 20 years. Prigozhin’s escape from trial contrasts starkly with Moscow’s treatment of its critics, including those who organized anti-government protests in Russia, where many opposition figures have been punished with long sentences in harsh penal colonies.
Lukashenko said some of the Wagner fighters are now in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, which was illegally annexed by Russia last September.
The astonishing series of events in recent days pose the most serious threat yet to Putin’s grip on power amid the 16-month-old war in Ukraine, and he again acknowledged the threat on Tuesday saying the result could be civil war.
In speeches this week, Putin has sought to project stability and project power.
At Tuesday’s Kremlin ceremony, the president descended the red-carpeted stairs in the 15th-century white-stone Palace of the Facets to address soldiers and law enforcement officers, thanking them for their actions to avoid mutiny.
In another display of business as usual, Russian media showed Defense Minister Shoigu, dressed in his military uniform, greeting the visiting Cuban defense minister in a pompous ceremony. Prigozhin said his goal was to overthrow Shoigu and other military leaders, not to stage a coup against Putin.
Lukashenko, who ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 29 years while relying on Russian backing and support, has portrayed the uprising as the latest development in the clash between Prigozhin and Shoigu. He said that as the insurgency began, he put the Belarusian armed forces into combat mode and urged Putin not to rush his response, lest the conflict spiral out of control.
He said he told Prigozhin that he would “crush like a bug” if he tried to attack Moscow, and warned that the Kremlin would not agree to his demands.
Like Putin, the Belarusian leader has portrayed the war in Ukraine as an existential threat, saying, “If Russia collapses, we will all die under the rubble.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not reveal details of the Kremlin’s deal with Prigozhin, saying only that Putin had given “certain guarantees” aimed at avoiding a “worst-case scenario”.
Asked why the rebels were allowed to approach Moscow as close as 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) without encountering serious resistance, National Guard chief Viktor Zolotov told reporters, “We have concentrated our forces in one fist closer to Moscow. If we deployed it thin, they would come like The knife through the butter.”
Zolotov, Putin’s former bodyguard, said the National Guard lacked battle tanks and other heavy weapons and would get them now.
According to Russian news reports, the mercenaries shot down at least six Russian helicopters and a military communications plane while advancing towards Moscow, killing at least ten pilots. The Defense Ministry has not released information about the victims, but Putin reminded them Tuesday and honored them with a moment of silence.
“The airmen, our comrades-in-arms, died while confronting the mutiny,” he said. “They did not hesitate and carried out their military orders and duties with dignity.”
Some Russian bloggers and patriotic activists have expressed outrage that Prigozhin and his forces will not be punished for killing the pilots.
Prigozhin expressed regret for the deaths of these people in his statement Monday, but said that Wagner’s forces opened fire because planes were bombing them.
Putin said in his televised address on Monday evening that the organizers of the rebellion had deceived the interests of the Ukrainian government and its allies. He commended the rebels of the rank, however, who “did not engage in fratricidal bloodshed and hung on the brink”.
The Washington-based think tank said it was “likely in an effort to keep” Wagner fighters in Ukraine, where Moscow needs “trained and effective manpower” as it faces a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The Institute for the Study of War also said the rift between Putin and Prigozhin is likely to be irreparable, and that Belarus providing an apparent safe haven could be a trap for the Wagner chief and his supporters.
Putin offered Prigozhin’s fighters a choice of either submitting to Russian military command, leaving the service, or going to Belarus.
Lukashenko said there was no reason to fear Wagner’s presence in his country, though in Russia, convicts recruited by Wagner are suspected of violent crimes. He said Wagner’s forces had “invaluable” military knowledge and experience to share with Belarus.
But exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who challenged Lukashenko in a 2020 election that was widely seen as rigged and sparked mass protests, said Wagner’s forces would threaten the country and its neighbours.
“Belarusians do not welcome the war criminal Prigozhin,” she told the Associated Press. “If Wagner establishes military bases on our lands, this will create a new threat to our sovereignty and our neighbors.”
While attention focused on the aftermath of the Russian insurgency, the war in Ukraine continued to take a toll in what US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink called “the horrific scenes of yet another brutal attack”.
Russian forces bombarded Kramatorsk and a nearby village in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region with missiles, killing three people, including a child, and injuring more than two dozen others, while others remain under the rubble of buildings, authorities said.
The 62-year-old was exiled Wagner Group It was part of a deal that ended the short-lived rebellion in Russia. President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed that Prigozhin was in Belarus, and said some members of his forces were welcome to stay “for some time” at their own expense.
Prigozhin has not been seen since Saturday, when he waved to well-wishers from a car in the southern city of Rostov. He issued a defiant audio statement on Monday. And on Tuesday morning, a private jet believed to belong to him flew from Rostov to an air base southwest of the Belarusian capital, Minsk, according to FlightRadar24 data.
Meanwhile, Moscow said that preparations were under way for Wagner’s forces, which numbered 25,000 according to Prigozhin, to hand over their heavy weapons to the Russian army. Prigozhin has said such moves are being taken before the July 1 deadline for his fighters to sign contracts – which he opposes – with the Russian military leadership.
Russian authorities also said on Tuesday they had closed a criminal investigation into the uprising and were not charging Prigozhin or his followers with armed rebellion.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to pave the way for charges of financial impropriety against an affiliated organization owned by Prigozhin. Putin told a military gathering that Prigozhin’s Concorde group received 80 billion rubles ($941 million) from a contract to supply the army with food, and that Wagner had received more than 86 billion rubles (more than $1 billion) last year for wages and additional materials. .
“I hope they don’t steal anything or steal not much while they’re doing it,” Putin said, adding that the authorities will look closely at Concorde’s contract.
For years, Prigozhin enjoyed lucrative catering contracts with the Russian government. Police who searched his St. Petersburg office on Saturday said they found 4 billion rubles ($48 million) in trucks outside, according to media reports confirmed by the Wagner boss. He said the money was intended to pay the soldiers’ families.
Prigozhin and his fighters halted the insurgency on Saturday, less than 24 hours after it began and shortly after Putin spoke on national television, calling the leaders of the insurgency, whom he did not name, traitors.
The charge of staging an armed rebellion could have carried a prison sentence of up to 20 years. Prigozhin’s escape from trial contrasts starkly with Moscow’s treatment of its critics, including those who organized anti-government protests in Russia, where many opposition figures have been punished with long sentences in harsh penal colonies.
Lukashenko said some of the Wagner fighters are now in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, which was illegally annexed by Russia last September.
The astonishing series of events in recent days pose the most serious threat yet to Putin’s grip on power amid the 16-month-old war in Ukraine, and he again acknowledged the threat on Tuesday saying the result could be civil war.
In speeches this week, Putin has sought to project stability and project power.
At Tuesday’s Kremlin ceremony, the president descended the red-carpeted stairs in the 15th-century white-stone Palace of the Facets to address soldiers and law enforcement officers, thanking them for their actions to avoid mutiny.
In another display of business as usual, Russian media showed Defense Minister Shoigu, dressed in his military uniform, greeting the visiting Cuban defense minister in a pompous ceremony. Prigozhin said his goal was to overthrow Shoigu and other military leaders, not to stage a coup against Putin.
Lukashenko, who ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 29 years while relying on Russian backing and support, has portrayed the uprising as the latest development in the clash between Prigozhin and Shoigu. He said that as the insurgency began, he put the Belarusian armed forces into combat mode and urged Putin not to rush his response, lest the conflict spiral out of control.
He said he told Prigozhin that he would “crush like a bug” if he tried to attack Moscow, and warned that the Kremlin would not agree to his demands.
Like Putin, the Belarusian leader has portrayed the war in Ukraine as an existential threat, saying, “If Russia collapses, we will all die under the rubble.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not reveal details of the Kremlin’s deal with Prigozhin, saying only that Putin had given “certain guarantees” aimed at avoiding a “worst-case scenario”.
Asked why the rebels were allowed to approach Moscow as close as 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) without encountering serious resistance, National Guard chief Viktor Zolotov told reporters, “We have concentrated our forces in one fist closer to Moscow. If we deployed it thin, they would come like The knife through the butter.”
Zolotov, Putin’s former bodyguard, said the National Guard lacked battle tanks and other heavy weapons and would get them now.
According to Russian news reports, the mercenaries shot down at least six Russian helicopters and a military communications plane while advancing towards Moscow, killing at least ten pilots. The Defense Ministry has not released information about the victims, but Putin reminded them Tuesday and honored them with a moment of silence.
“The airmen, our comrades-in-arms, died while confronting the mutiny,” he said. “They did not hesitate and carried out their military orders and duties with dignity.”
Some Russian bloggers and patriotic activists have expressed outrage that Prigozhin and his forces will not be punished for killing the pilots.
Prigozhin expressed regret for the deaths of these people in his statement Monday, but said that Wagner’s forces opened fire because planes were bombing them.
Putin said in his televised address on Monday evening that the organizers of the rebellion had deceived the interests of the Ukrainian government and its allies. He commended the rebels of the rank, however, who “did not engage in fratricidal bloodshed and hung on the brink”.
The Washington-based think tank said it was “likely in an effort to keep” Wagner fighters in Ukraine, where Moscow needs “trained and effective manpower” as it faces a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The Institute for the Study of War also said the rift between Putin and Prigozhin is likely to be irreparable, and that Belarus providing an apparent safe haven could be a trap for the Wagner chief and his supporters.
Putin offered Prigozhin’s fighters a choice of either submitting to Russian military command, leaving the service, or going to Belarus.
Lukashenko said there was no reason to fear Wagner’s presence in his country, though in Russia, convicts recruited by Wagner are suspected of violent crimes. He said Wagner’s forces had “invaluable” military knowledge and experience to share with Belarus.
But exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who challenged Lukashenko in a 2020 election that was widely seen as rigged and sparked mass protests, said Wagner’s forces would threaten the country and its neighbours.
“Belarusians do not welcome the war criminal Prigozhin,” she told the Associated Press. “If Wagner establishes military bases on our lands, this will create a new threat to our sovereignty and our neighbors.”
While attention focused on the aftermath of the Russian insurgency, the war in Ukraine continued to take a toll in what US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink called “the horrific scenes of yet another brutal attack”.
Russian forces bombarded Kramatorsk and a nearby village in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region with missiles, killing three people, including a child, and injuring more than two dozen others, while others remain under the rubble of buildings, authorities said.
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