Russian special services threatened families of Wagner chiefs until they retreated from Moscow – The Telegraph
Sources of British special services have reported that the Russian secret services threatened to hurt the families of chiefs of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) before Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner and leader of the Wagner PMC, stopped his "offensive on Moscow".
Source: The Telegraph
Details: It was also stated that Wagner had only 8,000 soldiers, not 25 000, as they had claimed earlier, and that they would most likely be defeated upon any attempt to overtake the Russian capital anyway.
The outlet writes that Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, will try to assimilate the Wagner PMC soldiers into the Russian army and kill its former leaders.
The Telegraph supposes that this was one of the reasons why Prigozhin called off the offensive on Moscow a few hours before arriving in the Russian capital.
Assumptions concerning the formal agreement, which has been made, if there was an agreement at all, remain. Prigozhin has not commented on this proposition.
It also remains unclear whether Sergey Shoigu, the Minister of Defence of Russia, has been demoted or dismissed, as Prigozhin had demanded.
The influence of the attempted coup on the battlefield in Ukraine is yet to be observed, writes The Telegraph.
The Kremlin claimed that the Wagner PMC soldiers, who did not participate in the coup, will be merged with the Russian Armed Forces, adding herewith that those who did not participate would not be persecuted.
Meanwhile, the members of the PMC, who were persecuted, threatened Prigozhin, stating that he had let them down, having refused to carry on with the coup.
Background:
- On the evening of 23 June, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that the regular Russian army had launched a missile strike on the Wagner mercenaries’ rear camps. He therefore deployed 25,000 of his mercenaries "to restore justice".
- Prigozhin claimed that his forces had taken control of military facilities in Rostov-on-Don, including the air base, and were heading "to Moscow" and that his soldiers had shot down three Russian helicopters. Wagner mercenaries also seized military facilities in the Russian city of Voronezh.
- In an emergency address on 24 June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was "fighting for survival" and that attempts were being made to "organise a rebellion" in the country. Ukrainian intelligence had information that Putin had urgently left Moscow for his residence in Valdai.
- On Saturday evening, after a conversation with Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Prigozhin announced that his mercenaries were turning their convoys around and going back to set up field camps. Later, it was reported that the criminal case against Prigozhin is to be closed and he will "go to Belarus".
- Russian pro-war media and Telegram channels are claiming that Wagner mercenaries have shot down the Il-22M aircraft (control point) and six helicopters of the Russian army, and 13 to 20 people died as a result of the mutiny by Wagner Group fighters. In addition to this, 19 houses and roads have been damaged as a result of the march of Prigozhin’s troops.
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