After touching off what appeared to be a threat to the continuing power of Russia President Vladimir Putin, the head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said Saturday that he has ordered his troops to end their intended march on Moscow. Wagner is the mercenary force that has been fighting alongside the Russians in Ukraine. Wagner forces had pulled back from Ukraine and started actions against various cities in Russia.
Earlier, Prigozhin ordered his troops to leave the battlefields in Ukraine and attack cities in Russia, in what Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged was an insurrection. World leaders and observers who were watching closely as events unfolded believed what was happening constituted the most direct threat to Putin’s rule over Russia since he came to power in 1999.
Prigozhin had been outspoken in his criticism of the way Russia’s military leaders were conducting the war in Ukraine. He had been refusing to renew his group’s contract with the Russian government to continue fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
Earlier on Saturday it was reported that Wagner troops had captured the Russian military command building from which Russian efforts in the Ukraine war is being directed. A video  showed that a fuel depot in Russia had been attacked by Wagner forces setting off an explosion and fire.
It was reported that the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko brokered the agreement between Putin and Prigozhin that led to Prigozhin making a social media post announcing that his troops were stopping their march on Moscow.
