Wagner group boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has reportedly recalled his troops from their advance on Moscow to “avoid bloodshed”.
In an audio message released on Saturday evening, according to Reuters, Prigozhin had agreed to stop the movement of troops towards the Russian capital after their day long journey north in an alleged coup attempt.
The office of Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko, who is a close ally of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, claimed on Saturday that he had brokered a deal to de-escalate the situation.
According to Lukashenko, an agreement has been reached that would “guarantee the safety of Wagner fighters”.
Although, neither the Wagner Group nor the Kremlin has commented on the claims.
Wagner’s forces were within four hours of Moscow when the turnaround news came. The events had sparked panic in the capital with residents told not to journey around the city.
Earlier on Saturday, Putin’s whereabouts was thrown into question after an aircraft belonging to the presidency was spotted flying from Moscow to St Petersburg.
His spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, however, denied Putin had fled.
