🔴 Live: Wagner group withdraws from Russian positions after ending rebellion

12:15am: Wagner fighters leave Lipetsk region in Southern Russia, regional authorities say

Wagner fighters have left the Lipetsk region in southern Russia, the regional government said on Sunday, following a deal to end a rebellion by the mercenary group.

“Wagner units that had deployed on Saturday in the Lipetsk region have now left the region,” regional authorities said on social media.

11:50am: Rebellious Wagner troops not to be prosecuted, those not taking part in uprising to be offered contracts by the Defence Ministry, according to deal with Kremlin

Under the deal announced Saturday by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov with rebellious Wagner Group, Moscow said it would not prosecute Wagner fighters who took part, while those who did not join in were to be offered contracts by the Defence Ministry.

Mercenary chief Evgeni Prigozhin ordered his troops back to their field camps in Ukraine, where they have been fighting alongside Russian regular soldiers. Prigozhin himself will go to neighbouring Belarus, which has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Charges against him of mounting an armed rebellion will be dropped.

10:50am: One civilian killed in Russian shelling of southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, governor says

A civilian man died after Russian forces shelled Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, local governor said on Sunday. “One of the shells exploded right in the middle of the room,” Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app. He said another woman was trapped under the rubble but alive.

Ukrainian authorities also reported that Russians shelled the south of Dnipropetrovsk region during the night, injuring one person and damaging three private houses.

This information could not be independently verified.

Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson and parts of the Kherson region in November after months of Russian occupation, but Russian forces regularly shell the city and surrounding areas from the opposite side of Dnipro River.

10:25am: Wagner forces leaving Russia’s southern Voronezh region ‘without incidents’, governor says

Wagner fighters were leaving Russia’s southern Voronezh region Sunday, the local governor said, after the group halted a dramatic rebellion to bring down Russia’s top brass and U-turned on a march to Moscow.

“The movement of Wagner units through the Voronezh region is ending,” Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev said. “It is running normally and without incidents,” Gusev added, saying travel restrictions imposed during Saturday’s operation against the rebellion will be lifted once “the situation is finally resolved.”

8:40am: Kyiv troops not able to benefit from Wagner rebellion

Ukrainian troops have not been able to take advantage of the Wagner troops’ rebellion in Russia “because the Wagner troops who left for Russia were not on the front lines anymore and had been pulled back from the battle for Bakhmut”, says FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg from Kyiv.

8:20am: US spy agencies detected signs of Russia revolt days prior, media reveal

US spy agencies picked up signs days ago that mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was preparing to rise up against Russia’s defence establishment, US media reported on Saturday.

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 Times said the information was both solid and alarming by mid-week, leading to the flurry of briefings.

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

02:33

8:05am: Russia’s Rostov-on-Don calm after Prigozhin departure

The situation around the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don was calm and street traffic resumed, RIA state news agency said on Sunday after Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenaries left the city.

In a video on the agency’s Telegram messaging app, which it said was taken in the city of Rostov-on-Don, a man was sweeping a street and cars were moving along another street.

These reports could not be independently verified.

Late on Saturday, Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, was seen leaving the district military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don after halting a rebellion against Russia’s military establishment.

7:20am: Chaos in Russia works in our advantage, Kyiv says

Chaos in Russia works to Kyiv’s advantage, Ukraine officials said on Saturday, but it remains to be seen whether President Volodymyr Zelensky and his army can capitalise on the disorder caused this weekend as mercenaries marched towards Moscow.

“Today the world saw that the masters of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Just complete chaos,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address, urging Ukraine’s allies to use the moment and send more weapons to Kyiv.

The Prigozhin unrest, the biggest internal challenge to President Vladimir Putin as Russia’s paramount leader for 23 years, has spurred global security concerns and a frenzy of calls between Washington and its allies to coordinate actions.

“Any chaos behind the enemy lines works in our interests,” State-run Ukrinform news agency quoted Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba as saying on Saturday.

6:56am: Traffic restrictions still in place in Russia’s Moscow and Tula regions

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

“According to earlier decisions made in the regions, the restriction of traffic along the M-4 ‘Don’ (highway) 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.

Key developments from Saturday, June 24:

The head of the Wagner group will go to Belarus and will not face charges after calling off his troops’ advance on Moscow, the Russian government said, easing the country’s most serious security crisis in decades.

The feud between Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russia’s military brass came to a crisis on Saturday, with Wagner forces capturing a key army headquarters in southern Russia and then heading north to threaten the capital.

Within hours of Prigozhin’s about-face, the Kremlin announced he would leave for Belarus and Russia would not prosecute him or Wagner members.

It had been a dramatic day, with President Vladimir Putin warning against civil war, Moscow telling locals to stay off the streets and Kyiv revelling in the chaos engulfing its enemy.

The tide shifted suddenly when Prigozhin made the stunning announcement that his troops were “turning our columns around and going back to field camps” to avoid bloodshed in the Russian capital.

Prigozhin, who has feuded bitterly with Moscow’s military leadership even as his outfit led parts of Russia’s Ukraine offensive, said he understood the importance of the moment and did not want to “spill Russian blood”.

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how all the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)