The office of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced today, Saturday, that he mediated an agreement with Yevgeny Prigozhin, who agreed to de-escalate the situation. The statement, published on the official Telegram channel of the Belarusian presidency, noted that "Prigozhin agreed to halt the movements of Wagner fighters across Russia."
It continued that "the talks lasted a full day and resulted in an agreement to avoid unleashing a bloodbath on Russian territory." The official Belarusian news agency BelTA reported that "President Alexander Lukashenko had a second phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday evening to inform him of the results of his discussions with the leader of the rebellious Russian mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin."
Later, Yevgeny Prigozhin stated on Saturday that he ordered his fighters, who were advancing toward Moscow, to return to their bases to prevent bloodshed. Prigozhin said: "They wanted to dissolve the Wagner military group. We embarked on a march for justice on June 23. Within 24 hours, we were 200 kilometers away from Moscow. During that time, not a single one of our fighters shed a drop of blood."
He considered it "time when blood could be shed. Based on our responsibility (for the potential) for unilateral bloodshed, we decided to return our fighters to the field camps." A witness from Reuters noted that Wagner fighters began withdrawing from the Russian city of Rostov.
