In order to avoid “a bloodbath,” Evgeny Prigozhin agreed to stop his march toward Moscow, according to the president of Belarus.
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, revealed on Saturday that he had worked out a deal in which Evgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, will give up his rebellion in return for “security guarantees” for his men.
According to a statement from President Alexander Lukashenko’s office, “Evgeny Prigozhin accepted the proposal of Alexander Lukashenko to stop the movement of armed men of Wagner in Russia and take further steps to de-escalate tension.”
The statement claims that Prigozhin and Lukashenko spoke for the “whole day” and “agreed on the inadmissibility of unleashing a bloodbath on the territory of Russia.”
The talks were coordinated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Lukashenko’s administration, which also stated that Prigozhin was given “an advantageous and acceptable option of resolving the situation, with security guarantees for the Wagner PMC fighters.”
The information was released as a Wagner convoy approached Moscow, some hours after members of the private military unit went via Rostov-on-Don in the south. Prigozhin announced in a series of videos remarks that have been made public since Friday that he was heading into Moscow to confront corrupt Russian military officers.
The Russian elite offered no support to Prigozhin. Putin, on the other hand, charged the Wagner leader with “backstabbing our country and our people,” and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a criminal investigation into Prigozhin for “calling for an armed rebellion.”
Senior military and political authorities in Russia condemned Prigozhin’s mutiny and urged the Wagner fighters to disarm.
After Lukashenko made his declaration, Prigozhin quickly declared that his troops were stopping their advance on Moscow and going back to their field camps.
