Putin praises Russian troops who 'stopped a civil war' in ceremony after Wagner revolt
Former Wagner leader is in Belarus, state media there reports, citing president
President Vladimir Putin praised members of Russia's military and security forces in a ceremony on Tuesday as he sought to reassert his authority following an aborted mutiny by mercenaries led by Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Putin told some 2,500 security personnel mustered on a square in the Kremlin complex that the people and the armed forces had stood together in opposition to the rebel mercenaries.
He was joined by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose dismissal had been one of the mutineers' main demands.
"You have defended the constitutional order, the lives, security and freedom of our citizens. You have saved our motherland from upheaval. In fact, you have stopped a civil war," Putin said.
Putin also requested a minute of silence to honour Russian military pilots killed in the revolt. The rebel fighters had shot down several aircraft during their run toward Moscow, although they faced no resistance on the ground.
Authorities dropped a criminal case against Wagner, state news agency RIA reported, apparently fulfilling one condition of a deal agreed late on Saturday that defused the crisis.
But Putin appeared to leave the door open for at least a probe of Prigozhin's empire of companies.
Putin said Wagner was "fully financed" by the state budget, receiving 86 billion roubles ($1.33 billion Cdn) from the defence ministry between May 2022 and May 2023. In addition, Prigozhin's Concord catering company made 80 billion roubles ($1.2 billion) from state contracts to supply food to the Russian army, Putin said.
"I do hope that, as part of this work, no one stole anything, or, let's say, stole less, but we will, of course, investigate all of this," he said.
Belarus arrival confirmation
Prigozhin, a former Putin ally and ex-convict whose mercenaries have fought the bloodiest battles of the Ukraine war and taken heavy casualties, had said he would go to neighbouring Belarus at the invitation of its president, close Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko.
Prigozhin is now in Belarus, Belarusian state news agency BELTA quoted Lukashenko as saying on Tuesday.
Lukashenko also said his defence minister, Viktor Khrennikov, had told him he would not mind having a unit like Wagner in the Belarusian army. The Belarusian leader instructed Khrennikov to negotiate with Prigozhin on the matter.
"We offered them one of the abandoned military bases," Lukashenko said, per the BELTA report. "Please — we have a fence, we have everything — put up your tents."
It was not immediately clear when Prigozhin arrived. But earlier Tuesday, flight tracking service Flightradar24's website showed an Embraer Legacy 600 jet, bearing identification codes that match a plane linked to Prigozhin in U.S. sanctions documents, descending to landing altitude near the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
Prigozhin was last seen in public on Saturday night, smiling and high-fiving bystanders as he rode out of Rostov in the back of an SUV after ordering his men to stand down.
Putin said in a televised address on Monday night that the mutiny leaders had betrayed their motherland, although he did not mention Prigozhin by name. Wagner fighters would be permitted to establish themselves in Belarus, join the Russian military or go home, he said.
Challenge to Putin dismissed as 'hysteria'
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news briefing on Tuesday the deal ending the mutiny was being implemented, and he had no information on where Prigozhin was. He also said he did not know how many Wagner fighters would sign contracts with the defence ministry.
He dismissed the idea that Putin's grip on power had been shaken by the mutiny, calling such thoughts "hysteria."
An order that all private military companies sign contracts with the defence ministry is to go in effect by July 1. Fewer than two per cent of Wagner's men have signed up ahead of the deadline, Prigozhin said in his audio message on Monday.
Prigozhin, 62, said he launched the mutiny to save his group after being ordered to place it under command of the defence ministry.
His fighters had halted their campaign on Saturday to avert bloodshed after nearly reaching Moscow, and regretted being forced to shoot down aircraft on the way, he said.
"We went as a demonstration of protest, not to overthrow the government of the country," Prigozhin claimed in an audio message released on Monday.
In Putin's overnight speech, his first public comments since the mutiny, he confirmed that Russian pilots had been killed, and thanked Russians for showing patriotic solidarity.
Russia's enemies wanted to see the country "choke in bloody civil strife," but Russia would not succumb to "any blackmail, any attempt to create internal turmoil," Putin said.
Deadly strikes in eastern Ukraine
Meanwhile, the death toll from a Russian missile attack that struck a popular restaurant in an eastern Ukrainian city has risen to eight, Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday.
At least 56 people were also wounded in the attack in Kramatorsk on Tuesday evening. The Russian missile struck a local eatery frequented by journalists, aid workers and soldiers who use Kramatorsk as a base of operations. The city lies only a few kilometres from the front line.
Three children were among the dead. The shelling occurred right when people had returned from work, Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin said. He said the three dead children were ages 14 and 17.
Kramatorsk is a major city west of the front lines in Donetsk province and a likely key objective in any Russian advance to move westward to capture all of the region.
The city has been a frequent target of Russian attacks, including a strike on the town's railway station in April 2022 that killed 63 people.