Wagner mercenary force chief Yevgeny Prigozhin will move to Belarus under a deal made by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the Kremlin has said.
Mr Prigozhin has reportedly said he has ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow “to avoid shedding Russian blood”.
“To avoid bloodshed we are returning our convoys to bases,” Mr Prigozhin said in an audio message, Reuters reported.
Moscow’s mayor earlier said that “a counter-terrorist operation regime has been declared in Moscow” as the Wagner mercenary military approached the capital.
Sergei Sobyanin put out a statement on Telegram asking people to “refrain from travelling around the city as much as possible” and said “City services are on high alert.”
“The situation is difficult,” he said, saying it’s possible some roads or neighbourhoods in the city will be closed to traffic, and that Monday will be a “non-working day” to “minimise risks”.
It comes as witnesses described Russian army helicopters opened fire on the Wagner mercenary military convoy on a highway in Russia on the way to the capital amid the rebellion ordered by its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Fighters from Mr Prigozhin's private Wagner militia were in control of Rostov-on-Don, a city of more than a million people close to the border with Ukraine, and were rapidly advancing northwards through western Russia and said it had taken over the central military HQ for operations in Ukraine.
Mr Prigozhin, whose private army fought the bloodiest battles in Ukraine even as he feuded for months with the top brass in the country’s military, said he had captured the headquarters of Russia's Southern Military District in Rostov after leading his forces into Russia from Ukraine.
He posted a series of angry video and audio recordings in which he accused Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering a deadly rocket strike Friday on Wagner‘s field camps in Ukraine, where his troops are fighting on behalf of Russia.
The action is "the most significant challenge to the Russian state" in recent times, according to UK defence officials. The UK government has held an emergency Cobra meeting over the rebellion and is monitoring the situation closely.
