Surprising turnaround Saturday night: Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigoshine announced that his fighters would withdraw to their camps „as planned,” or else there would be a risk of bloodshed.

The statement of Putin’s opponent, translated by Russian experts, read: “Now is the time for bloodshed. As we realize the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood was shed on one side, we will reverse our convoy and return to our base camps according to the plan.”

Belarus also announced that Prigozhin had accepted mediation from Minsk. Shortly thereafter, the Kremlin confirmed that all criminal investigations against Wagner’s boss and his mercenaries would be dropped.

Yevgeny Prigozhin has now left Rostov-on-Don – and is said to have made his way to Belarus.

The Telegram post went viral with Prigozhin’s audio message announcing the face makeover, but most followers commented on the news with a sarcastic buffoonery.

Prigozhin’s supporters on social media appeared disappointed.

Meduza journalist Kevin Rothrock wrote on Twitter that he was waiting for RT correspondent Margarita Simonyan to take responsibility for resolving the Wagner uprising.

Wagner’s mercenaries were in Rostov-on-Don for a day

Meanwhile, the mercenaries of Wagner’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin were facing Russian forces in Rostov-on-Don. There are videos on social media of people in the city on the Russian border offering water to Wagner fighters or shaking hands as thanks.

In the march to Moscow announced by Prigozhin, Wagner’s mercenaries apparently reached the city of Voronezh and took control of military installations there as well.

Putin threatens severe punishment

President Vladimir Putin’s reaction came just a day after Wagner’s mercenary chief announced that he would send his forces from Ukraine to Russia to take action against the defense minister. The head of the Kremlin speaks of „betrayal of Russia”. Anyone who engages in armed rebellion will be punished. Putin says: “Our measures to defend the Fatherland against this threat will be harsh. Anyone who deliberately chose the path of treason and planned an armed uprising engaged in methods of extortion and terror. You will inevitably be before the law and our people will be punished.”

Prigozhin: „The president is terribly wrong”

About an hour after Putin’s speech, Yevgeny Prigozhin responded and declared: „As for betrayal of the homeland, the president is very wrong. We are patriots of our homeland. We fought and continue to fight. And no one will accept demands from the president, bow to the FSB or anyone else, because we do not want it to continue.” The country to live in corruption, lies and bureaucracy.”

Prigozhin – who claims to have 25,000 fighters on his side – recalls the previous operations of Wagner’s mercenaries: „When we fought in Africa we were told we needed Africa and then they brought it down because they stole all the money that was meant for assistance.

When we were told that we would fight in Ukraine, we went and fought. But it turns out that the ammunition, weapons and all the money that was intended for them are also stolen, while the officers are saving themselves for an incident that happened today when someone went to Moscow.

Prigozhin announces the „March on Moscow”.

Earlier, Wagner’s chief threatened Prigozhin in a video that he would send his mercenaries to Moscow if Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Gerasimov were not handed over to his troops. In the recording, Prigozhin – dressed in military gear in the courtyard of a building – explains that he occupied the command post in Rostov only to prevent attacks on his troops.

Max Sedon, a journalist for the Financial Times, translated Putin’s speech, in which the president spoke of a „very tough fight for the future of Russia” in the war against Ukraine and the West.

On Saturday evening, Yevgeny Prigozhin published another message in which he said he had sent his mercenaries from Ukraine across the border to Rostov.

The FSB is investigating Prigozhin

Pictures of the tanks on the streets of Rostov, where Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is said to be, also circulated online overnight. However, there was initially no official confirmation of many of the reports from Russia.

The commander of the Special Army said in another post on social media that the Russian Ministry of Defense bombed the Wagner mercenary camp.

The FSB began investigations into Prigozhin for a military coup. According to the state agency TASS, security measures have been tightened in Moscow.

General Surovikin is said to have asked Prigozhin to submit to military command. the As reported by the „Financial Times” correspondent Max Sidon.

The Russian Ministry of Defense denies any attack on the Wagner Force. „The messages and videos circulating on Prigozhin’s social networks about the alleged bombing by the Russian Defense Ministry of the retreats of the Wagner paramilitary group do not correspond to reality and constitute a provocation,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

What will happen to Prigozhin by Monday?

As @wartranslated or Dmitri – a journalist who monitors the situation in Russia from the Baltic states – wrote on Twitter, Yevgeny Prigozhin declared war on the Russian Defense Ministry.

It also looks similar Meduza journalist Kevin Rothrock, who writes that Russia has never been closer to a coup since the 1990s. By Monday, Prigozhin will either be dead, imprisoned, or in hiding.

The 62-year-old chief of Wagner also released a video of the alleged attack on his mercenaries. He promises revenge.

„Justice will be restored to all of Russia”

The war observer in Ukraine translated Prigozhin’s new letter into English. This is what it read:

The Wagner Council of Leaders has made a decision: the evil caused by the country’s military leadership must be stopped.

They neglect the lives of soldiers. You forgot the word „justice” and we will bring it back to you.

Those who destroyed our boys today, who destroyed tens of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers, will be punished.

I beg you: do not resist. Anyone who tries to resist will be deemed a threat by us and will be destroyed immediately, including any checkpoints on our way. And all the planes we see in the sky.

I ask everyone to remain calm, not to respond to provocations, and to stay in their homes. Ideally, those lying in our path don’t come out.

After we finish what we started, we will return to the front lines to protect our homeland.

The presidential power, the government, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosgvardia and other departments will continue to work as before.

We will deal with those who destroy the Russian soldiers. We will go back.

Justice will be restored in the army. Then justice for all of Russia.

Putin’s confidants were once Yevgeny Prigozhin, both of whom are from St. Petersburg.