Cracks in Putin's power revealed by Wagner mutiny, US says (2024)

We’re ending our live coverage of the Wagner military coup in Russia here for today.

Thank you for following check back to our homepage for the latest updates.

Thousands of Russian troops have been sent to eastern Ukraine including a replica of the Wagner group called Storm Z, according to a spokesman for Ukrainian forces.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesman for Operational Command East, told national media that “all kinds of troops”.

He added that “more than 170,000” had flocked to the region.

“They are pulling all kinds of units into our operational area – these are airborne units, infantry, the Bars combat reserve, territorial forces, and a number of other smaller PMCs such as Patriot, Fakel, and Veterans.

“The latest were the Storm Z assault companies. This replica of Wagner Group was established under the Military Draft Offices. There are probably more than 170,000 of them in our operational zone,” he said.

Poland has strengthened its eastern borders with Belarus following reports the Wagner chief has been exiled to the country.

Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, said on Sunday that it has also reinforced more than 230 kilometres of the border with Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast in the northeast.

Poland is “closely monitoring” the actions of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group after its one-day rebellion, added Mr Morawiecki.

“We are aware of these threats and respond to them by anticipating attacks,” Mr Morawiecki said. “(Alexander) Lukashenko and (Vladimir) Putin can act in a very strange way. Those actions are still the subject of various analyses and studies by us and our NATO allies.”

The country is reportedly anticipating an armoured attack from the country’s eastern neighbours.

Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian defence minister, said he discussed the turmoil in Russia in a phone call with his American counterpart on Sunday, describing the Russian authorities as “weak” and saying things were “moving in the right direction.”

In a brief readout of the call with defence secretary Lloyd Austin, Mr Reznikov said they also discussed Ukraine’s counteroffensive and steps to strengthen Ukraine’s armed forces.

“We agree that the Russian authorities are weak and that withdrawing Russian troops from Ukraine is the best choice for the Kremlin,” Mr Reznikov wrote on Twitter.

Investors were watching for ripple effects from the aborted mutiny in Russia, with some expecting a move into safe havens such as US government bonds and the dollar when markets open later on Sunday.

After Saturday’s events, some investors said they were focused on the potential impact on safe-haven assets such as US Treasuries and on commodities prices, given that Russia is a major energy and grains supplier.

Gennadiy Goldberg, head of US rates strategy at TD Securities in New York, said: “If there remains uncertainty about leadership in Russia, investors may flock to safe havens.”

“Markets typically do not respond well to events that are unfolding and are uncertain,” particularly relating to Putin and Russia, said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial.

“If the uncertainty escalates, you’re going to see Treasuries get a bid, gold will get a bid and the Japanese yen tends to gain in situations like this,” said Ms Krosby.

Russian government troops have withdrawn from the streets of Moscow and people are flocking to parks and cafes following a short-lived revolt by the Wagner group.

The march on the capital by Wagner troops led by its chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is understood to have severely dented Putin’s reputation as a leader.

Putin and Mr Prigozhin have not yet commented on the deal.

Russia has sent two airborne units from occupied territories in Ukraine to protect Moscow during the Wagner group’s rebellion.

Russian command “plans to keep them [airborne troops] for at least a week (in Moscow)”, the Ukrainian military’s National Resistance Center said on Sunday.

Up to two companies of Russia’s 76th Airborne Assault Division got to Moscow by Il-76 transport aircraft, according to the report.

Russian convict fighters who had expressed support for Yevgeny Prigozhin and his armed coup on Saturday have accused him of “walking off” after he struck a deal with President Vladimir Putin.

Recruits of a Storm Z unit, a Russian military unit made up of convicts, stood in combat uniform holding assault rifles as one addressed Prigozhin and said he was “not a man” after he called off the mutiny.

“Rumours say you walked off, lied to all the lads. The whole of Storm Z was ready to stand behind you, and not only Storm Z, your guys also. But you walked off,” he added.

In the terms of the deal, Prigozhin has said he will relocate to Belarus.

Another soldier said: “You spoke beautifully, we supported you. And now what?”

Lithuania’s president has warned that if Belarus is to host Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin then NATO will need to strengthen its eastern flank.

The head of state, whose Baltic country neighbours Belarus and Russia and will host next month’s NATO summit, spoke after a state security council meeting to discuss Wagner’s aborted revolt against the Kremlin.

“If Prigozhin or part of the Wagner group ends up in Belarus with unclear plans and unclear intentions, it will only mean that we need to further strengthen the security of our eastern borders,” Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda told reporters.

“I am not only talking about Lithuania here, but without a doubt the whole of NATO,” he said.

Nauseda added that Lithuania will devote more intelligence capabilities to assessing the “political and security aspects of Belarus”.

Heavily armed Wagner mercenaries withdrew from the southern Russian city of Rostov overnight under a deal that halted their rapid advance on Moscow.

Mr Prigozhin, 62, was seen leaving the district military headquarters in Rostov - hundreds of miles south of Moscow - late on Saturday in a sport utility vehicle. His whereabouts on Sunday were not known.

Mr Prigozhin, a former Putin ally and ex-convict whose forces have fought the bloodiest battles of the 16-month war in Ukraine, said his decision to advance on Moscow was intended to remove corrupt and incompetent Russian commanders he blames for botching the war.

Alexander Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, scored a propaganda victory by brokering the deal which staved off the threat of an internal armed conflict in Russia but he may live to regret an accord that will see his country host the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, observers say.

In a statement late Saturday, Mr Lukashenko’s press service said he had spent all day in negotiations with Mr Prigozhin, with the approval of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and the Wagner boss had agreed to stop his advance towards Moscow.

The announcement was a boost for Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled a nation that borders three EU states for almost 30 years but has been treated as a pariah by the West since disputed 2020 elections and now also because of his support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Under the deal brokered by Mr Lukashenko, Mr Prigozhin will in future live in exile in Belarus, the Kremlin announced. It still remains unclear if he will be bringing members of the Wagner militia with him.

Katia Glod, Russia-West Policy Fellow at the European Leadership Network in London, said it was likely that Mr Prigozhin was “dumped” on Mr Lukashenko by Putin.

“I don’t think it was Lukashenko’s own will. I think he was used by the Kremlin. He would rather not have Prigozhin,” she told AFP.

“The only plus that there could be for Lukashenko is he may want to use Prigozhin as personal army against any potential revolt.”

Wagner mercenaries downed six Russian army helicopters and one plane on Saturday.

Yurii Ihnat, Ukraine’s Air Force spokesman, told national media on Sunday that Russia lost two attack helicopters and four transport aircraft.

“Mi-8 transport helicopters are powerful hardware that really helps the Russian army in its war against Ukraine,” the spokesman said.

Russian pro-Kremlin military bloggers reported on Saturday that the Wagner troops downed one Ka-52 attack helicopter, one Mi-8 transport helicopter, three Mi-8 electronic warfare helicopters, one Mi-35 attack helicopter, and one Il-18 aircraft.

China said it supported Russia in “protecting national stability”, in Beijing’s first official remarks on a short-lived armed uprising led by the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin.

“As a friendly neighbour and a new era comprehensive strategic cooperative partner, China supports Russia in protecting national stability and achieving development and prosperity,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding the issue was Russia’s “internal affair”.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, has reportedly made a dig at the Wagner chief who staged a short coup against the Russian leader.

Mr Kadyrov said: “I thought some people can be trusted. But it turned out that for the sake of personal ambitions, profit and because of arrogance, people don’t give a damn about love for the Motherland.”

The armed uprising in Russia exposed “real cracks” in President Vladimir Putin’s authority after he was forced into an amnesty deal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday.

The revolt by the Wagner private mercenary group and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin over the weekend marked “a direct challenge to Putin’s authority. So this raises profound questions, it shows real cracks,” Mr Blinken told CBS News talk show “Face the Nation.”

Recruitment centres for the Wagner private mercenary group (PMC) reportedly reopened on Sunday, a day after the group’s leader staged an armed coup.

Russian-language news outlet RTVI reports that among those centres which have reopened is one in Voronezh, which had been occupied by Wagner troops on Saturday as they moved towards Moscow. The Voronezh centre “clarified that [it] was closed yesterday” but “not we are allowed to work”. The recruitment centre in Astrakhan, another city in southern Russia, is also reportedly open.

A RTVI journalist was asked about their age, criminal record, and the state of their health. The journalist could not reach the centres in Moscow and St Petersburg.

A prominentChinese commentator said Russia “cannot return to the country it was” after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s coup attempt before apparently deleting his tweet, Louise Watt writes.

Nationalistic commentator Hu Xijin said on Saturday that the Wagner chief’s final outcome would be “tragic” after he ordered his troops to march on Moscow.

“His armed rebellion has made the Russian political situation cross the tipping point. Regardless of his outcome, Russia cannot return to the country it was before the rebellion anymore,” Mr Hu purportedly wrote in a tweet that was later deleted.

Read more on this story here.

The US was worried that Vladimir Putin would lose control of his nuclear arsenal during a coup attempt in Russia by Yevgeny Prigozhin, James Kilner writes.

Intelligence officers had picked up information that the Wagner chief and his mercenaries were planning a coup 10 days ago but were not sure of the exact timing.

“Even so, there were enough signals to be able to tell the (American) leadership that something was up,” the Washington Post quoted a US intelligence official as saying.

Read more on this story here.

Russia’s foreign ministry has said China had expressed support for Russia’s leadership in its efforts to stabilise the domestic situation following Saturday’s mutiny by the Wagner group.

It was previously reported that Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko held a meeting with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday, after flying to Beijing for talks on “international” issues.

Mikhail Kasyanov, Russian Prime Minister under Vladimir Putin from 2000 to 2004, has said that the events this weekend mark “the beginning of the end” for the Russian president.

A leading critic of Putin since being sacked, Mr Kasyanov told the BBC that he thought Yevgeny Prigozhin will first go to Belarus, and then to Africa “and be somewhere in the jungle or something like that”. The Wagner Group conducts several operations in Africa.

He added that “Mr Putin cannot forgive him for this” and that his life will be under “a big question” as a result of the armed mutiny.

Mr Kasyanov said that, for Putin, this is “the beginning of the end... he’s in very big trouble right now.”

President Vladimir Putin will take part in a meeting of Russia’s Security Council next week, state television reported on Sunday.

The report by Rossiya 1 television channel’s current affairs programme Vestidid not specify whether the meeting would take place on Friday as normal or be brought forward, following the armed mutiny by the Wagner group.

Russia’s defence ministry on Sunday said it had repelled attempted attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported.

The ministry said it had repelled 10 attacks in the Bakhmut area over the last day, TASS news agency reported.

In an interview on state television recorded on June 21 and aired on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was in constant contact with the defence ministry and that the country remained confident in realising its plans related to the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The comments in an interview with Kremlin correspondent Pavel Zarubin were broadcast by Rossiya state television. The full interview is due to be broadcast later on Sunday.

Russian fighters who had expressed support for Yevgeny Prigozhin during his armed coup on Saturday have criticised him for “walking off”, after a deal was struck between President Vladimir Putin and the Wagner chief.

In a video shared on social media, members of a Storm Z unit, a Russian military unit made up of convicts, told Prigozhin he was “not a man” after he called off the mutiny.

One soldier, carrying a gun, spoke to the camera: “Rumours say you walked off, lied to all the lads. The whole of Storm Z was ready to stand behind you, and not only Storm Z, your guys also. But you walked off.”

Another soldier said: “You spoke beautifully, we supported you. And now what?”

North Korea’s vice foreign minister said in a meeting with the Russian ambassador thathe supported any decision by the Russian leadership to deal with a recent mutiny, North Korean state media reported.

Im Chon Il, the vice foreign minister, “expressed firm belief that the recent armed rebellion in Russia would be successfully put down in conformity with the aspiration and will of the Russian people,” state news agency KCNA said.

North Korea has sought to forge closer ties with the Kremlin and supported Moscow after it invaded Ukraine last year, blaming the “hegemonic policy” of the United States and the West.

Mr Im also said he believed the Russian army would “overcome trials and ordeals and heroically emerge victorious in the special military operation against Ukraine,” KCNA reported.

As with so many episodes in Russia’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine, it began with grainy smartphone footage of a missile-wrecked Russian military base. The camera panned over burning tree stumps and charred body parts, showing what seemed to be the loss of yet more Russian servicemen on Ukraine’s frontline, Colin Freeman writes.

The video was posted late on Friday night on the Telegram channel of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.

He has posted numerous such gory videos before – usually accompanied by a foul-mouthed rant against the generals in Russia’s defence ministry, whom he blames for botching the war.This time, though, he claimed the missile came not from Ukrainian forces, but from “b------” on his own side. And this time, he added, he and his 25,000 fighters had had enough.

Read more on this story here.

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s business page on VKontakte, a Russian social media platform, has been shut down by the Russian authorities.

The Concord Group page, which published various statements and announcements by the Wagner chief, currently shows the message: “This community has been blocked in compliance with a request from Roskomnadzor”. Roskomnadzor is Russia’s communications watchdog.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko flew to China for talks on “international” issues with Beijing, amid a major challenge to political power by the Wagner Group.

Mr Rudenko met with Foreign Minister Qin Gang for a meeting in the Chinese capital on Sunday to discuss Sino-Russian relations as well as “international and regional issues of common concern”, China’s foreign ministry said on its website.

It is unclear when Mr Rudenko arrived in Beijing, or whether his visit was in response to the apparent rebellion on Friday.

China, a key ally of Russia, has not yet publicly commented on the uprising.

An uprising by the Wagner group suggests that Vladimir Putin has “lost authority” in Russia, a former MI6 officer has said.

Christopher Steele told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “What’s changed I think is that Vladimir Putin has lost authority and legitimacy within Russia and has been challenged in a way, yes he’s managed to worm his way out of it for the present.

“To see events unfold in Russia yesterday and the speed with which the situation seemed to spiral out of control must be very concerning for Putin and the people around him.”

The Chechen “Akhmat” special forces are pulling out of Russia’s Rostov region, state news agency TASS reports.

Commander of the special forces unit, Apti Alaudinov, said that some units had been moved from the front line in Ukraine to Rostov to help put down the Wagner armed coup, but they were returning.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, said on Telegram on Saturday that “the situation ended without direct confrontation” between his forces and Wagner troops.

When a helicopter shrieked over the roof of her home at 4am on Saturday, Torya Sporysheva knew a defining day in Russian history had begun, Nataliya Vasilyeva reports.

The craft, she was aware, was not the first sign of a Ukrainian force advancing on Rostov, the Russian city 100km from the Ukrainian border where she lives in a quiet residential area.

Instead, it was the first sign that Yevgeny Prigohzin had made good on his threats of the previous night, which she had followed obsessively on her phone until she fell asleep. The mercenary leader of the Wagner Group had seized control of her hometown, a wealthy city on the river Don, turning his ire away from Ukraine and back at the state he claimed had betrayed his soldiers on the front.

“I woke up at about 4 or 5am from an incredible noise: The helicopters were flying over,” Ms Sporysheva, a 47-year-old opposition activist, told The Telegraph on Saturday.

Read more from our Russia correspondent here.

All transport restrictions in Russia’s Rostov region have been lifted, including those on highways, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing local officials.

Sergey Tyurin, deputy minister of regional policy and mass communications for the Rostov region, was cited as saying: “Bus and railway stations are working in normal mode. Tickets are on sale, all destinations are on schedule.”

Wagner fighters were leaving Russia’s southern Voronezh region Sunday, the local governor said, as he thanked residents for their “fortitude” and “reasonableness” in the face of the armed action on Saturday.

Voronezh governor, Alexander Gusev, said: “The movement of Wagner units through the Voronezh region is ending,”

“It is running normally and without incidents,” Mr Gusev added, saying travel restrictions imposed during Saturday’s operation against the mutiny will be lifted once “the situation is finally resolved.”

“I thank all Voronezh residents for their endurance, fortitude and reasonableness, and all law enforcement agencies and agencies involved for their well-coordinated work and professionalism.

The granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev has said that Vladimir Putin’s position is becoming “weaker and weaker”, despite being seen as a “victor” against Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs, told Times Radio from Moscow: “Some people that I talked to, at least in my building, were saying, well whatever Putin is, at least we don’t have a bloody war with rapists and murderers and revolution on our hands. So in some way, at least in the short run, he seems to (have) come out as victor. But he has been weakened.

“Being a victor in this particular situation doesn’t mean that he won... He has been weakened since February 24 2022 when he announced the occupation of Ukraine, the special military operation, as they call it here. But you know, in regular terms...the war is not going well and it’s clear to everybody that it’s not going well....

“It is (the) calm before the storm and Putin’s position is getting weaker and weaker. And that’s why he will continue to fight because that’s the only thing, it seems to me, that keeps him in power.”

The attempted rebellion in Russia is an internal matter for Moscow and does not affect the UK’s position on Ukraine, a Treasury minister has said.

John Glen, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday show: “It is obviously a very unstable situation in Russia, but it is fundamentally an internal matter.

“And we’ve obviously urged, alongside our allies ... that obviously civilian interests are considered.

“This isn’t a matter that we will be intervening in, but obviously we observe and monitor the situation on an ongoing basis very carefully.”

He added: “Nothing has changed with respect to the British Government’s position on supporting Ukraine.”

The Wagner group’s military equipment damaged more than 10,000 square metres of roadway in Rostov-on-Don, Russian state media cites the city’s mayor as saying.

RIA Novosti reported that the mayor said the roads will be repaired in two days.

Wagner forces arrived in Rostov-on-Don in the early hours of Saturday morning, before heading on to Voronezh and towards Moscow.

An “anti-terrorist operation regime” was still in force in Moscow on Sunday, a day after mutinous Wagner mercenaries threatened to storm the capital.

The anti-terrorist regime was introduced on Saturday, as Prigozhin’s forces appeared to advance on the capital.

Moscow authorities also said that a day off work introduced to curb movement around the city on Monday would remain in place for security reasons.

Meanwhile, authorities in the Kaluga region, south of Moscow, said they were starting to lift road restrictions introduced to stop the Wagner rebellion late on Saturday..

The Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, has said that the agreement brokered by Alexander Lukashenko “will very likely eliminate Wagner Group as a Prigozhin-led independent actor in its current form”, following Prigozhin’s attempted coup on Saturday.

The think tank said in their analysis:

“The Lukashenko-brokered deal notably strips Prigozhin of control of Wagner Group in exchange for dropping criminal charges for rebellion and treason. The deal will, if executed as framed by[Kremlin spokesman] Peskov, subordinate some portion of the Wagner Group under the Russian MoD, as Defense Minister Shoigu has long desired.

“However, it is unclear how the Kremlin will define Wagner personnel as having not participated in the rebellion, and Peskov’s announcement does not specify the fate of Wagner personnel who did participate, other than receiving a pardon. These personnel could potentially sign contracts with the MoD on an individual basis; demobilise in Russia (a likely dangerous course of action for Kremlin internal security), travel to Belarus in some capacity, or deploy abroad to support Wagner’s previous main effort of operations in Africa or the Middle East.”

Ukrainian military officials were said to be “running out of popcorn” as they followed the chaos engulfing their adversary and weighed how to take advantage in their counter-offensive, Ben Farmer and Colin Freeman write.

Turmoil gripped the Russian regime after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny was welcomed in Ukraine, but defence sources also cautioned they had so far seen no corresponding weakening of Russia’s front lines.

“We are little-by-little running out of popcorn,” Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, told the BBC.

Ukrainian officials following the fast-moving developments predicted Mr Prigozhin’s revolt and his march on Moscow would weaken their enemy, bringing a Ukrainian victory closer and perhaps the fall of Putin.

Read more on this story here.

The situation around the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don was calm and street traffic resumed, according to footage shared by Russian state media, after Wagner mercenaries left the city.

In a video shared by RIA Novosti purportedly from Sunday morning of the streets of Rostov-on-Don, a man was sweeping the street, traffic was moving along the main road and pedestrians were walking around the city. The entrance to the city’s circus, where a Wagner tank had been stationed on Saturday, was shown to be empty.

The report could not be verified.

Vladimir Putin received a lukewarm response as he launched a flurry of phone calls to international allies, Nick Allen writes.

The Russian president has alienated himself from much of the world following his invasion of Ukraine, and his diplomatic isolation could leave him vulnerable as the internal chaos continues.

There was initial silence from Beijing, despite the recent growing closeness of China and Russia.

And in public statements, other capitals friendly to Moscow maintained the crisis was an “internal” problem for Russia, rather than issuing pledges of support for Putin.

Read more on this story from Nick Allen here.

The key plank of the deal appeared to be the Kremlin dropping plans to abolish the Wagner military company, writes Roland Oliphant.

“They were going to dismantle PMC Wagner. We came out on June 23to the march of justice,” Prigozhin said in a voice message.

“In a day, we walked to nearly 200 kilometres away from Moscow. In this time, we did not spill a single drop of blood of our fighters.

“Now, the moment has come when blood may spill. That’s why we are turning back our convoys and going back to field camps according to the plan.”

The Kremlin announced later in the evening that Prigozhin had agreed to move to Belarus under the terms of the deal. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman, said criminal charges against him would be dropped.

Wagner troops that took part in the rebellion would similarly be spared from prosecution, Mr Peskov said.

Russian state television cut to adverts and broadcast a programme about caviar while the potential coup was going on.

The unfolding political and military crisis was covered but viewers were given official statements, including from Vladimir Putin, and told that the situation was “calm”.

State television broadcast that Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had launched an armed rebellion.

And it showed footage of Wagner troops in Rostov, the Russian city of one million people near the Ukraine border that Mr Prigozhin said his forces had taken.

Read the full story

Traffic restrictions remained on the M-4 “Don” major expressway in the Moscow and Tula regions on Sunday, the Federal Road Agency said.

“According to earlier decisions made in the regions, the restriction of traffic along the M-4 in the Tula and Moscow regions remains in place,” the agency said.

Heavily armed Russian mercenaries who had advanced most of the way to Moscow on Saturday then halted their approach, de-escalating a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power, in a move their leader said would avoid bloodshed.

The US had intelligence that Yevgeny Prigozhin was building up his Wagner forces near the border with Russia for some time. Officials briefed congressional leaders known as the Gang of Eight on the buildup earlier last week, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The US intelligence briefing was first reported by CNN.

Other US media reported US spy agencies picked up signs days ago of the possible uprising.

Intelligence officials conducted briefings at the White House, the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill about the potential for unrest in nuclear-armed Russia a full day before it unfolded, the Washington Post and New York Times reported.

Spy agencies first began tracking indications that Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenary force intended to move against the Russian military leadership in mid-June, the Post said. The NY Times said the information was both solid and alarming by mid-week, leading to the flurry of briefings.

As US intelligence officials pinned down information that Prigozhin was preparing military action, they grew concerned about chaos in a country with a powerful nuclear arsenal, the Times reported.

US spy agencies believe that Vladimir Putin himself was informed that Prigozhin, once a close ally, was plotting his rebellion at least a day before it occurred, the Post reported.

The military preparations raise questions about Prigozhin’s explanation for why he seemingly spontaneously sent his forces into Russia and whether he had instead long been planning a challenge to Russia’s military leadership. Wagner troops have played a crucial role in the Ukraine war, capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut, an area where the bloodiest and longest battles have taken place. But Prigozhin has increasingly criticised the military brass, accusing it of incompetence and of starving his troops of munitions.

Russian media reported late on Saturday that several helicopters and a military communications plane were downed by Wagner troops during the short-lived uprising. Prigozhin previously said his forces had taken control of the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, as well as other military facilities in the city without any deaths or even “a single gunshot”.

ALSO READ: Prigozhin’s attempted coup will change Russia forever

By early Sunday, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group had pulled fighters and equipment from Rostov-on-Don, where they had seized the military headquarters, according to the governor in that southern Russian region about 600 miles south of Moscow.

But before they left, dozens of residents were cheering and chanting “Wagner! Wagner!” outside the military headquarters they had captured, AFP reported.

Authorities in the southern Lipetsk region announced the lifting of restrictions after earlier reporting Wagner fighters in their territory, where the local capital is 260 miles south of Moscow.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said he had negotiated a truce with Prigozhin, drawing thanks from Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later told reporters that the “criminal case against him (Prigozhin) will be dropped. He himself will go to Belarus.”

Mr Peskov also said that members of Wagner who had taken part in what authorities termed an “armed rebellion” would not be prosecuted “Avoiding bloodshed, internal confrontation, and clashes with unpredictable results was the highest goal,” Mr Peskov said.

ALSO READ: A full timeline of the Wagner rebellion

Images of tanks on Russian streets on Saturday raised concerns about the security of the nuclear arsenal and the possibility of a rogue commander stealing a warhead, said former US intelligence officials.

“The IC (intelligence community) will be super-focused on the (Russian) nuclear stockpile,” said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA officer who oversaw the agency’s clandestine operations in Europe and Eurasia.

“You want to know who has control of the nuclear weapons because you’re worried that terrorists or bad guys like (Chechen leader Ramzan) Kadyrov might come after them for the leverage they can get,” said Daniel Hoffman, a former senior CIA officer who served as the agency’s Moscow station chief.

Mr Kadyrov dispatched thousands of his own militiamen to Rostov-on-Don, the southern city seized and then abandoned by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s fighters, vowing to help put down the revolt.

US officials say they do not see an immediate threat to the security of Russia’s strategic and tactical weapons. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the deal that sent Wagner fighters back to their camps was aimed at avoiding confrontation and bloodshed.

“We have not seen any changes in the disposition of Russian nuclear forces,” said a National Security Council spokesperson in response to questions from Reuters. “Russia has a special responsibility to maintain command, control, and custody of its nuclear forces and to ensure that no actions are taken that imperil strategic stability.”

But the safety of these weapons is a persistent worry for Washington. US intelligence agencies said in their 2023 Annual Threat assessment that “Russia’s nuclear material security ... remains a concern despite improvements to material protection, control, and accounting at Russia’s nuclear sites since the 1990s.”

A congressional aide noted that the Kremlin has pumped extra resources into modernising its arsenal in recent years, adding that, “Russia’s strategic forces have generally been in shipshape.”

ALSO READ: The Kremlin must not be allowed to drag the entire world into nuclear Armageddon

One Moscow resident who gave his name as Nikolai – declining like others to give his surname –- had watched the military take up positions to protect the city.

“It’s frightening of course. You sit at home thinking about what might happen,” he told Reuters. “It’s disturbing, both for you and your loved ones.”

Some Moscow residents found it hard to grasp the scale of events on Saturday.

“It’s really tough news, really unexpected. I’ve just come back from university. I’ve just done my last exam and the news was really unexpected as I was prepping (for the exam) last night,” said Vladimir, a student. “I don’t really know how to react. I haven’t really got my head around it yet.”

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, had declared that a “counter-terrorism regime” was in force, before the leader of the Wagner private militia announced that his fighters would turn back to avoid bloodshed.

In Kyiv’s Independence Square, packed with residents enjoying a stroll, Natalia Tanich, 48, acknowledged a certain pleasure in watching the Russian standoff.

“I enjoy what is happening in Russia. The inevitable conflict between Prigozhin and Putin was expected,” she said. “I don’t know what may come out of it. But I wish for them to shoot each other and die.”

In Moscow a woman called Galina said she thought what was happening was some kind of “provocation”.

“It doesn’t frighten me at all,” she said. “I have confidence in our president and our people.”

One man who declined to be named at all said he thought it was just politics playing out. “They might cancel a few events, and I make my living from events. I have an event going on now, so I could lose out because of this,” he said.

“But otherwise, it’s their business, it’s politics – let them get on with it.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted after the rebellion ended that Ukraine will “definitely be able to protect Europe from any Russian forces, and it doesn’t matter who commands them’’, adding “the security of Europe’s eastern flank depends only on our defence’’.

He said “the longer this person [Vladimir Putin] is in the Kremlin, the more disasters there will be’’.

The insurrection left the situation for Russia’s invasion force in Ukraine more uncertain as Kyiv continues its strongest counteroffensive since the war began in February last year.

Ukraine’s military said on Saturday its forces made advances near Bakhmut, on the eastern front, and further south, Reuters reported.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said an offensive was launched near a group of villages ringing Bakhmut, which was taken by Wagner forces in May after months of fighting.

Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of the southern front, said Ukrainian forces had liberated an area near Krasnohorivka, west of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk.

He said the area had been under Russian control since separatist forces backed by Moscow seized it in 2014.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian mercenary leader, turned his fighters back from a march on the Kremlin on Saturday after a truce was struck with Vladimir Putin.

Mutinous Wagner mercenaries marched to within 150 miles of Moscow in what the Russian president described as a treasonous “stab in the back” before they abruptly halted.

The stand-down came after Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus, said he had brokered a last-minute truce to avoid a Russian civil war.

The key plank of the deal appeared to be the Kremlin dropping plans to abolish the Wagner military company.

“They were going to dismantle PMC Wagner. We came out on June 23 to the march of justice,” Prigozhin said in a voice message. “In a day, we walked to nearly 200 kilometres away from Moscow. In this time, we did not spill a single drop of blood of our fighters.

“Now, the moment has come when blood may spill. That’s why we are turning back our convoys and going back to field camps according to the plan.”

Read more: Wagner mutineers turn back from Moscow after striking deal with Putin

Good morning and welcome to our live blog of the developing situation in Russia. Here is the latest news:

• Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian mercenary leader, turned his fighters back from a march on the Kremlin on Saturday after a truce was struck with Vladimir Putin
• Wagner mercenaries marched to within 150 miles of Moscow in what the Russian president described as a treasonous “stab in the back”
• The Kremlin announced on Saturday evening that Prigozhin had agreed to move to Belarus under the terms of the truce and criminal charges against him will be dropped
• Western leaders held an emergency consultation and said they were monitoring the situation
• Russian state television cut to adverts and broadcast a programme about caviar while the potential coup was going on
• Putin received a lukewarm response as he launched a flurry of phone calls to international allies
• Ukrainian military officials were said to be “running out of popcorn” as they followed the chaos engulfing their adversary