Moscow: In the wake of the Wagner Group’s aborted uprising, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a stern warning, saying that any attempt to “blackmail or create internal unrest” in Russia would fail and claimed that the West and Kiev wanted the Russians to withdraw. “Kill each other.”
Putin addressed the nation
The uprising of the armed mercenaries on Saturday lasted less than 24 hours. According to Al Jazeera, Putin said in a televised address to the nation on Monday that the steps had been taken on his orders to avoid large-scale bloodshed since the start of the events, as he thanked Russians for their patience and support. Thanked
He said, “It was exactly this brotherhood that Russia’s enemies wanted: the neo-Nazis in Kiev and their Western patrons and all kinds of national traitors. They wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other.” Inner turmoil is doomed to failure.”
According to Al Jazeera, Putin said, “From the very beginning of the events, steps were taken on my orders to avoid large-scale bloodshed.”
The Russian president also said he would keep his word and allow the Wagner fighters to move to Belarus, or continue to serve Russia under contracts with the Ministry of Defense or other law enforcement agencies, Al Jazeera reported.
Additionally, he thanked his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko for serving as a mediator between Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and Moscow.
The aim of the march was not to overthrow the regime: Wagner Group
Meanwhile, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday that the march toward Moscow was aimed at stopping the destruction of Wagner’s private military company and “bringing justice to those who, through their unprofessional actions, destroyed the special forces during Made a lot of mistakes.” Action”. In an audio message released on Monday, he said that this march was a protest and its purpose was not to overthrow the government.
In explaining his decision to reverse his march on Moscow, Prigozhin said that he wanted to avoid Russian bloodshed. “We started our march because of injustice. We went to show our protest, not to overthrow the government in the country,” Prigozhin said in an audio message, Al Jazeera reported.
However, he did not share any details about where he is or what his future plans are.
In his new audio message, Prigozhin said about 30 of his fighters were killed in an attack by Russian forces on the mercenary group on Friday. They said the attack happened days before Wagner left his post on June 30 and handed over the equipment to the Southern Military District in Rostov.
According to CNN, Yevgeny Prigozhin said that the march halted when the troop “reconnaissed the area, and it was clear that a lot of blood would be shed at that point. We felt it was enough to demonstrate what we were going to do”. ,
He said that the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has extended his hand and offered to find a solution regarding the further work of the Wagner Private Military Company in legal jurisdiction, reports CNN.
Prigozhin’s action comes after Russian forces were accused of attacking the Wagner military camp and killing “large numbers” of its fighters.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has denied his claim and termed it an “information provocation”.