Vladimir Putin met Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin five days after the mercenary chief led a rebellion in Russia, a Moscow official has said. Wagner Group commanders joined the three-hour meeting on June 29 in the aftermath of the June 24 uprising, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
In it Putin offered an “assessment” of Wagner’s actions on the battlefield in Ukraine and “of the events of June 24”. He also “listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them options for further employment”, Peskov said.
He added: “They underlined that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the commander-in-chief, and also said that they are ready to continue to fight for their homeland.”
It is an astonishing twist after Putin called Prigozhin a backstabbing traitor, and it has fuelled claims the Russian regime has been hugely weakened.
Prigozhin had marched his men towards Moscow following long-simmering conflict with the Russian military’s top brass. But he ended the uprising after a deal was brokered for the ex-jailbird to be exiled in Belarus as the Kremlin thrashed out plans for Wagner’s future.
Russia’s defence ministry yesterday published a video featuring military chief General Valery Gerasimov – the first time he has been shown since the rebellion aimed to oust him.
It came as Ukraine said Russia had killed three women and a man in a missile attack on a humanitarian aid depot in the town of Orikhiv in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
