Wagner chief Prigozhin begins exile in Belarus

Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin flew into exile in Belarus on Tuesday under a deal that ended a brief mutiny by his fighters.

A plane linked to Prigozhin was shown on a flight tracking service taking off from the southern Russian city of Rostov early on Tuesday and landing in Belarus.

“I see Prigozhin is already flying in on this plane,” state news agency BELTA quoted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as saying. “Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news briefing on Tuesday the deal ending the mutiny was being implemented.

Russian authorities also dropped a criminal case against his Wagner Group mercenary force, state news agency RIA reported, apparently fulfilling another condition of the deal brokered by Lukashenko late on Saturday that defused the crisis.

Prigozhin, a former Putin ally and ex-convict whose mercenaries have fought the bloodiest battles of the Ukraine war and taken heavy casualties, had earlier said he would go to neighbouring Belarus at the invitation of Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin and an acquaintance of the Wagner chief.

Russian leaders have tried to convey that the situation is returning to normal. Peskov dismissed the idea that Putin’s grip on power had been shaken by the mutiny, calling such thoughts “hysteria”.

In Moscow, Putin sought to reassert his authority after the mutiny led by Prigozhin in protest against the Russian military’s handling of the conflict in Ukraine.

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Ukraine hopes the chaos caused by the mutiny attempt will undermine Russian defences as Ukraine presses a counteroffensive to recapture occupied territory in the south and east.

Prigozhin, 62, said he launched the mutiny to save his group after being ordered to place it under command of the defence ministry, which he has cast as ineffectual in the war in Ukraine.

His fighters halted their campaign on Saturday to avert bloodshed after nearly reaching Moscow, he said.

“We went as a demonstration of protest, not to overthrow the government of the country,” Prigozhin said in an audio message on Monday.