Wagner’s mercenary leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin is reportedly backtracking after his invasion of Russia to topple high-ranking military commanders, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to brand him a traitor and a “mortal threat” to the nation.
Putin retaliated with airstrikes on the road north of Rostov-on-Don, where Wagner’s forces captured a Southern Military District facility. The Wagner group encountered military resistance in the vicinity of Voronezh, a few hundred kilometers from Moscow.
Prigozhin now says he is withdrawing, adding that he “does not want to spill Russian blood” and has announced the withdrawal of Wagner’s convoys to his bases.
“They were going to dismantle PMC Wagner,” he said. “We went out on June 23 in the March of Justice. In one day, we walked almost 200 km from Moscow. In that time, we did not shed a single drop of blood from our fighters. Now, the time has come when blood can be shed. Therefore, realizing the responsibility of spilling Russian blood on one side, we are turning back our convoys and returning to the field camps according to the plan.”
While it has not yet been confirmed that Wagner’s troops are in full retreat, Ukrainian forces have meanwhile taken advantage of the military exodus to invade the Donetsk region.
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