Russia rebellion: Wagner troops to be absorbed into Russian military as mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin heads to Belarus
Some Wagner Group mercenaries will join the official Russian military after their leader called off their march on Moscow and agreed to relocate to Belarus.
Yevgeny Prigozhin stood down his troops, who were heading towards the Russian capital, saying he wished to avoid spilling Russian blood.
His mercenaries were reportedly just 120 miles from Moscow after Prigozhin had vowed to “destroy anyone who stands in our way”.
Yevgeny Prigozhin poses for selfies as he leaves Rostov Pic: AP
After negotiations with the Kremlin, Prigozhin, previously known as “Putin’s chef”, called an abrupt halt to the advance, which many observers had branded an attempted coup.
Wagner boss turns his troops around – Russia mutiny latest
As part of the agreement, the full details of which are yet to be revealed, it was reportedly decided that Prigozhin will leave Russia for Belarus and some of his Wagner fighters will be subsumed into the Russian military.
The route taken by the Wagner Group up towards Moscow
The US reportedly had intelligence that Prigozhin was building up his forces near the border with Russia for some time.
Officials briefed congressional leaders known as the Gang of Eight on the build-up earlier in the week, a person familiar with the matter said.
The person was not authorised to speak publicly and spoke to the Associated Press news agency on the condition of anonymity.
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.
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Wagner leader’s audio message calling off advance
Sky News’ defence and security editor Deborah Haynes said: “It all does look like a bit of theatre as opposed to the grave threat to the state that it appeared to be earlier on throughout the day.
“Vladimir Putin came out with this extraordinary statement earlier gravely cracking down on the actions of Prigozhin and his followers but now it seems all has been forgiven.
“The hope I’m assuming is that things can get back to the normal abnormality that is life in Russia during this time of war in Ukraine.
“But the events have been so extraordinary that I think it’s going to take much longer to unpick exactly what happened.”
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Wagner group cheered in captured city
In his message, Prigozhin said: “In 24 hours we reached within 200km of Moscow. Over that time we didn’t shed a single drop of our men’s blood.
“Now though the time has come when blood might be shed. Therefore, mindful of the responsibility that Russian blood might be shed by one of the parties, we are turning our columns round and moving off in the opposite direction, to the field camps, according to plan.”
After the armed mutiny was called off, the Kremlin said all criminal charges against Prigozhin would be dropped, his Wagner fighters would not be prosecuted and he would relocate to Belarus
“Avoiding bloodshed was more important than punishing people,” a Kremlin spokesperson said, adding that some of the Wagner fighters will be able to sign contracts with Russia’s defence ministry.
The office of Alexander Lukashenko said the decision to halt further movement of Wagner fighters was brokered by the Belarusian president, with President Vladimir Putin’s approval, in return for guarantees for their safety.
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The Kremlin said Mr Lukashenko had offered to mediate because he had known the mercenary leader personally for around 20 years.
Russia had enlisted 3,000 elite Chechen troops to be stationed in Moscow and placed machine guns on its borders, in preparation of private troops entering the capital.
Pro-Russian media reported 13 Russian soldiers were killed as part of the mutiny – but Sky News has not been able to verify the claim.
Earlier, the Russian president accused the leader of the Wagner Group of treason and leading an “armed mutiny”.
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Putin accuses Prigozhin of treason
Condemning the actions of one-time ally Prigozhin, who was leading a rebellion to oust Russia’s defence minister, Putin branded the mercenary boss’s actions a “stab in the back” to the country’s soldiers and people.
But Prigozhin denied a betrayal and called his fighters “patriots”.
The convoy had earlier moved rapidly from Russia’s south and was thought to be around the Lipetsk region before the advance ended.
Earlier, Russian media showed groups of police manning machine gun positions at Moscow’s southern border.
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Prigozhin claimed he and his troops had reached Rostov-on-Don after crossing the Russian border from Ukraine and taken control of key sites, including the airfield.
The city is home to the Russian military headquarters that directs the invading forces in Ukraine.
The mercenary group was also said to have seized defence facilities in the city of Voronezh, around 310 miles south of Moscow.
The Russian army carried out “combat measures” in the Voronezh region “as part of the counter-terrorist operation”, according to its governor Alexander Gusev.
The Wagner forces have played a crucial role in Russia’s war in Ukraine, succeeding in taking the city of Bakhmut where the bloodiest and longest battles have taken place.
The Syrian presidency has announced it’s assembling a special taskforce to try to stop nearly a week of sectarian clashes in the southern Druze city of Sweida.
The presidency called for restraint on all sides and said it is making strenuous efforts to “stop the fighting and curb the violations that threaten the security of the citizens and the safety of society”.
By early Saturday morning, a ceasefire had been confirmed by the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, who posted on X that Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire supported by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
The post went on to state that this agreement had the support of “Turkey, Jordan and its neighbours” and called upon the Druze, Bedouins, and Sunni factions to put down their arms.
Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford reports from the road leading to Sweida, the city that has become the epicentre of Syria’s sectarian violence.
For the past 24 hours, we’ve watched as Syria‘s multiple Arab tribes began mobilising in the Sweida province to help defend their Bedouin brethren.
Thousands travelled from multiple different Syrian areas and had reached the edge of Sweida city by Friday nightfall after a day of almost non-stop violent clashes and killings.
“We have come to protect the [Arab] Bedouin women and children who are being terrorised by the Druze,” they told us.
Arab fighters said they had come to protect the Bedouin women and children
Fighters at a petrol station
Every shop and every home in the streets leading up to Sweida city has been burned or ransacked, the contents destroyed or looted.
We saw tribal fighters loading the back of pickup trucks and driving away from the city with vehicles packed with looted goods from Druze homes.
Shops and homes leading up to Sweida city have been burned or ransacked
Several videos posted online showed violence against the Druze, including one where tribal fighters force three men to throw themselves off a high-rise balcony and are seen being shot as they do so.
Doctors at the nearby community hospital in Buser al Harir said there had been a constant stream of casualties being brought in. As we watched, another dead fighter was carried out of an ambulance.
The medics estimated there had been more than 600 dead in their area alone. “The youngest child who was killed was a one-and-a-half-year-old baby,” one doctor told us.
Doctors said there had been a constant stream of casualties due to violence
The violence is the most dangerous outbreak of sectarian clashes since the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime last December – and the most serious challenge for the new leader to navigate.
The newly brokered deal is aimed at ending the sectarian killings and restoring some sort of stability in a country which is emerging from more than a decade of civil war.
Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the US ambassador to Turkey has said.
Several hundred people have reportedly been killed this week in the south of Syria in violence involving local fighters, government authorities and Bedouin tribes.
As the violence escalated in the southern province of Sweida, Israel launched airstrikes, including attacks on Wednesday on the defence ministry in Damascus and a target near the presidential palace.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said it aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
In a post on X, the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan and others.
“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Mr Barrack said in a post on X.
The Israeli embassy in Washington and Syrian Consulate in Canada did not immediately comment or respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.
The ceasefire announcement came after the US worked to put an end to the conflict, with secretary of state Marco Rubio saying on Wednesday that steps had been agreed to end a “troubling and horrifying situation”.
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Why is Israel bombing Syria?
After Israel warned it would destroy forces attacking Syrian Druze, Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa told the minority group in a televised statement on Thursday that “we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party”.
He then claimed Israel has “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime”.
It comes after the United Nations’ migration agency said earlier on Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced in the region since violence broke out on Sunday.
It also said that essential services, including water and electricity, had collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems were widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa were under severe strain.
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At least three people have been killed after a “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility, officials have said.
A spokesperson for the department said there was an explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in east LA.
The incident was reported at around 7.30am local time (3.30pm UK time).
Aerial footage from local channel KABC-TV suggests the blast happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff patrol cars and box trucks.
The training centre in east LA. Pic: NBC Los Angeles
Attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X: “I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.
“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more.”
California congressman Jimmy Sanchez said the explosion had “claimed the lives of at least three deputies”.
“My condolences to the families and everyone impacted by this loss,” he said.
Media and law enforcement officials near the explosion site. Pic: AP
The attorney general said in a follow-up post that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “on the ground to support”.
The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the LAPD bomb squad has also responded to the scene.
“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of those impacted by this blast,” she said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his press office said in a post on X.
“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and closely monitoring the situation, and has offered full state assistance,” it added.
The cause of the explosion is being investigated.
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