Prigozhin Agrees to Stop PMC Wagner March, Start De-Escalation After Lukashenko's Mediation

Presidents Putin and Lukashenko spoke by phone on Saturday to discuss the situation in southern Russia, where Wagner PMC chief Evgeny Prigozhin launched an armed mutiny on Friday after accusing the Russian military of attacking his men. The Russian defense ministry denied the claims.

Evgeny Prigozhin has agreed to halt his forces' advance on Moscow.

"They wanted to disband the Wagner PMC. We set off on June 23 on our march of justice. In a day we traveled to within 200 kilometers of Moscow. In this time, we have not shed a single drop of our fighters' blood. Now the moment has arrived when blood may be shed. Therefore, understanding our full responsibility for the possibility of Russian blood being shed by one of the sides, we are turning our columns around and heading in the opposite direction to our encampments in accordance with the plan," Prigozhin said in an audio recording Saturday evening.

Earlier, Belarusian state media reported, citing the presidential press office, that Prigozhin had agreed to halt his forces after mediation by President Alexander Lukashenko.

President Putin agreed to Lukashenko's mediation with Prigozhin, which lasted throughout the day Saturday. "As a result, the parties agreed to the inadmissibility of unleashing a bloody massacre on Russian territory. Evgeny Prigozhin accepted President Lukashenko's proposal to stop the movement of Wagner's forces in Russia and to take further steps to de-escalate tensions," the report said.

Minsk indicated that an "absolutely advantageous and acceptable option for resolving the situation" had been tabled, including "security guarantees for Wagner's fighters."

Earlier in the day, Belarus's Security Council issued a statement expressing concerns about the situation involving Prigozhin and his conflict with the Russian military's leadership, warning that "any provocation" would prove a "gift to the collective West" and stressing that Minsk was and will always remain Russia's ally.

In an address to the nation Saturday morning, President Putin stressed that at a time when "the entire military, economic and informational machine of the West" was directed against Russia, Wagner's mutiny constituted a "knife in the back of our country and our people," and that the situation threatened to result in repeat of the political and civil strife that Russia experienced in the first part of the 20th century.

Prigozhin and his men announced Friday evening that they would go to Moscow to "sort out" what happened to scores of their comrades who were killed in an apparent missile strike that Wagner claimed was launched by the Russian military. The Russian Defense Ministry denied launching any strikes, accusing Wagner of an "informational provocation," with the Federal Security Service charging Prigozhin with trying to incite an armed insurrection.

Prigozhin, whose forces played an important role in the NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine, has had a very long and very public feud with Russia's senior defense ministry officials, especially Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who he has attacked publicly and personally as 'corrupt' and 'incompetent', with the dispute appearing to boil down to the military failing to provide Wagner with enough ammunition. Wagner fighters refused to sign on to a contract scheme with the Defense Ministry earlier this month after it ordered all volunteer military formations to do so, prompting the crisis between Prigozhin and Shoigu to escalate, eventually spilling out into Friday's mutiny.