The Kremlin has confirmed that President Vladimir Putin met with Wagner’s boss Yevgeny Prigozhin in Moscow after the armed uprising ended.
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin met Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on June 29. The meeting took place five days after the group’s armed coup.
Putin invited 35 people, including unit commanders, to the meeting, which lasted three hours, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov said Wagner commanders told Putin they were his soldiers and would continue to fight for him.
Prigozhin, who was scheduled to leave for Belarus after his coup, has said the coup was not aimed at overthrowing the government, but the army and defense chiefs. "”to bring to justice” what he called his mistakes and unprofessional actions in Ukraine.
Under the terms of a deal brokered by Belarusian President Lukashenko to end Wagner’s armed rebellion last month, Prigozhin was to move to Belarus with his fighters, who did not want to sign with the Russian Defense Ministry but appeared to That the agreement is not running on these lines.
Lukashenko said Prigozhin is in Russia, and the question of the relocation of thousands of his fighters has yet to be decided. He said Wagner’s fighters were still in permanent camps where they had been since leaving the front and he expected to discuss the matter in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Wagner Group attempted a coup d’état after the conciliatory efforts of the President of Belarus led to the Wagner Group withdrawing its decision to advance.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s private militia Wagner Group, said the march was aimed at protesting the ineffectiveness of the war in Ukraine, not toppling the Moscow government or challenging President Putin’s rule.
Russian President Putin held a key meeting in the Kremlin with the defense minister and other top officials, including the head of the security service, after which he thanked the Wagner fighters in an address to the nation for avoiding a mutiny.
He said that most of Wagner’s commanders are patriotic Russians, the Wagner group showed courage on the battlefield and liberated Donbas, as promised they will not face any consequences.