Wagner

Wagner mercenaries are no longer participating in "any significant capacity" in combat operations in Ukraine, the Pentagon said Thursday, more than two weeks after the group's aborted mutiny in Russia.

"Will I be able to shoot my comrades?" was the question that tormented Vlad during the armed rebellion of his former comrades on June 24.
A convoy of rebel mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin advanced toward Moscow and Russia seemed on the brink of civil war. Vlad feared that he would be sent to defend the capital against his former comrades.

According to the Kremlin, Putin and Prigozhin met on June 29, five days after the rebellion ended.
As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained, 35 people attended the meeting.
"All the commanders were invited, including Prigozhin himself. This meeting was held in the Kremlin on June 29. It lasted almost three hours," Peskov said without giving details of the meeting.

He announced on his Telegram channel that Ukrainian forces are advancing in the area north of Bakhmut and that Russian troops have urgently gone to that area.

Belarus welcomed the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin into exile on Tuesday following an aborted rebellion, as NATO warned it was ready to defend against "Moscow or Minsk".

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on a restaurant in eastern Ukraine rose to eight on Wednesday, as Kiev played down the effect of a brief mutiny by the head of the Wagner mercenary group on the conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday accused Ukraine and its Western allies of wanting Russians to "kill each other" during a revolt by mercenaries of the Wagner group, which stunned the country with an aborted march on Moscow over the weekend.

Wagner mercenaries were returning to base on Sunday as their mutinous leader agreed to go into exile after President Vladimir Putin was forced to accept an amnesty deal.

The agreement appears to end the immediate threat that Yevgeny Prigozhin's private army could storm Moscow, but analysts said Wagner's revolt had exposed a fragility in Putin's rule.

The head of the Wagner mercenary group said on June 24 he had crossed into Russia with his forces to topple Moscow's military leadership, saying he and his 25,000 fighters were "ready to die".

Yevgeny Prigozhin, 62, said his forces, who have spearheaded much of Russia's offensive in Ukraine, had entered the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and controlled its military sites.

Day 436 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours: