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June 24 () –
The Kremlin has announced that the leader of the Wagner Group mercenary organization, Yevgeni Prigozhin, will leave for Belarus, that no criminal charges will be filed against any Wagner members, and the charges against Prigozhin himself will be dropped.
“He asks me what will happen to Prigozhin personally. The criminal case against him is going to be withdrawn and he will go to Belarus,” said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dimitr Peskov, in statements to the press.
Peskov stressed that the issue has been resolved without any casualties and without increasing the level of tension. Now Prigozhin will be able to “go to Belarus” with the personal guarantee of President Vladimir Putin. “If you ask me what kind of guarantee Prigozhin will have to go to Belarus, I will tell you that it is the word of the Russian president,” Peskov stressed.
Peskov himself has explained that Wagner’s fighters who so wish will be able to sign contracts with the Defense Ministry, provided they have not participated in the Prigozhin “campaign” on Friday and Saturday.
“An agreement has been reached for the Wagner Group to return to their headquarters, to their locations. Some of them who want to will sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense in the future. This is for those who did not participate in this ‘campaign’ “, Peskov pointed out.
Putin’s spokesman stressed that “there have been groups that changed their minds from the beginning and returned.” “They even requested an escort from the traffic police and other help to return to their destinations,” he recounted.
On the other hand, those who participated in the rebellion, “will not bring charges against the rest of the combatants taking into account their merits at the front.” “We have always respected heroism at the front and we will always maintain that respect,” he stressed.
Peskov has also highlighted the mediation exercised by the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, and has stressed that he and Prigozhin have known each other for about 20 years. Lukashenko himself and Putin had a “long, frank, warm and very constructive” conversation that facilitated the final agreement, according to Peskov.
Regarding the situation in Ukraine, Peskov stressed that the incidents related to Wagner on Saturday will not affect the military situation in Ukraine. He has also indicated that he has no news that there will be any change in the Ministry of Defense, whose leadership was at the center of Prigozhin’s criticism.
Finally, Peskov has ruled out that Putin is going to star in a new message to the nation like the one that this Saturday pointed out the members of Wagner for treason.
Meanwhile, part of the Wagner members have already begun to leave the center of the city of Rostov-on-Don, occupied by these forces since Friday, the Russian authorities have reported.
Wagner’s trucks and other light vehicles have been evacuated first, and then heavy vehicles, including main battle tanks, have begun to move until they have been completely withdrawn from the Southern Military District headquarters, the TASS news agency reports. A Wagner column is still present in the center of the city.
