Aleksandr Lukashenko appears to have confirmed that the Wagner founder, Yevgeney Prigozhin, has landed in Belarus. On its Telegram channel the Belta news agency quotes the Belarusian leader saying: “Security guarantees, as he promised yesterday, were provided. I see that Prigozhin was already flying on this plane. Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today.”
Earlier on Tuesday the Kremlin said it had no information on the whereabouts of Prigozhin, leader of the mercenary Wagner group. Under the terms of a deal that ended the weekend’s mutiny, Prigozhin was to be allowed to move to Belarus, and his fighters were given the chance to join Russia’s regular armed forces or to move to Belarus with him. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told his regular news briefing that the deal ending the mutiny was being implemented, and that President Vladimir Putin always kept his word. He said he did not know how many Wagner fighters would sign contracts with the Defence Ministry following the deal.
Putin addressed members of Russian military units, the National Guard, security forces and others who helped to uphold order during Saturday’s mutiny by mercenary fighters at the Kremlin, saying they “essentially prevented a civil war” by acting “clearly and coherently”. The Russian president then announced a minute of silence for the army pilots that Wagner shot down and killed during their uprising. There has been no official information about how many pilots died or how many aircraft were shot down during Wagner’s rebellion but some pro-military bloggers reported that at least 13 pilots were killed during the mutiny.
Putin also said the Wagner mercenary group was entirely financed by the Russian state, which spent 86bn roubles ($1bn) on it between May 2022 and May 2023. Previously in public the Kremlin had always insisted it was a private enterprise, giving Russian authorities distance from Wagner activities.
In a speech on Tuesday in the capital of Belarus, Lukashenko, said it had been “painful” to watch events unfold in Russia, and that he had put Belarusian troops and police on full alert during the crisis.
Putin had used a Monday night address to accuse Ukraine and its western allies of wanting Russians to “kill each other” and claimed Prigozhin’s uprising was “doomed to fail”, adding that the country showed “unity” in the face of a “treacherous” rebellion.
Prigozhin released his first statement on Monday since the mutiny in which he denied his forces engaged in an attempted coup. In an 11-minute speech released via Telegram, Prigozhin said he was staging a protest at the treatment of his men and the conduct of the war with a “march for justice”. Wagner forces seized control of the military command in the southern city of Rostov and advanced within 200km of Moscow before pulling back. Prigozhin said his forces had set up artillery south of Moscow but decided that “a demonstration of protest was enough”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces “advanced in all directions” on Monday following a meeting with his generals. “This is a happy day. I wished the guys [had] more days like this,” he added. His comments come after Ukrainian troops reportedly established a foothold near the Antonovsky bridge on the left bank of the Dnieper and retook the village of Rivnopil.
Zelenskiy also visited two areas along the frontline in eastern and southern Ukraine on Monday. The Ukrainian president handed out awards and posed with troops in video footage posted online, including a to unit heavily involved in holding off a Russian advanced in city Bakhmut. “Thank you for protecting our country, sovereignty, our families, children, Ukraine,” he said.
Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, is “ready to continue to fight” for an alternative to Putin despite being in solitary confinement and facing new charges that could see him in jail for decades, his friends and supporters have said. Launching a campaign in front of the European parliament on Tuesday, Maria Pevchikh, a Russian journalist and CEO of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, said he had been locked up in “punishment cell” for 180 days on fake charges including not washing his teeth at the correct time.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has suggested in its daily intelligence briefing that for the first time Ukraine may have retaken territory in eastern Ukraine that lies beyond the de facto borders established between the Kyiv government and the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in 2014.
Ukraine’s armed forces say they shot down two Kalibr cruise missiles on Monday night and seven Shahed UAV drones during attacks by Russian forces overnight.
Explosions have reportedly been heard in Kremenchuk and in Sumy oblast during Tuesday morning. Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that an elderly resident of Orikhiv in Zaporizhzhia region was killed by artillery fire.
Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency is reporting that railway tracks have been damaged in eastern Crimea. It cites the Russian-imposed regional governor as saying repairs will take four to eight hours. It is unclear from reports what has caused the damage. Russia illegally seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
