<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">The greatest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power fizzled out relatively peacefully Saturday after the rebellious mercenary commander who ordered his troops to march on Moscow abruptly reached a deal with the Kremlin to go into exile and sounded the retreat.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The dramatic if brief revolt shifted the landscape for the Kremlin and the 16-month-old war in Ukraine and prompted Russia to pull soldiers back from the battlefield to defend the capital, a stunning recognition of the threat posed by Wagner Group soldiers under the command of Yevgeny Prigozhin.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Under the deal announced by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Prigozhin will go to neighboring Belarus and charges of mounting an armed rebellion will be dropped. The government said it also would not prosecute fighters who took part, while those who did not join in were to be offered contracts by the Defense Ministry.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Putin had vowed earlier to punish those behind the armed uprising led by his onetime protege, whose forces seized a key military facility in southern Russia before advancing on the capital. In a televised speech to the nation, he called the rebellion a “betrayal” and “treason.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In allowing Prigozhin and his forces to go free, Peskov said, Putin’s “highest goal” was “to avoid bloodshed and internal confrontation with unpredictable results.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moscow had braced for the arrival of the Wagner forces by erecting checkpoints with armored vehicles and troops on the city’s southern edge. Red Square was shut down, and the mayor urged motorists to stay off some roads.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">About 3,000 Chechen soldiers were pulled from fighting in Ukraine and rushed there early Saturday, state television in Chechnya reported, signaling the Kremlin’s desperation as the Wagner troops advanced to, according to Prigozhin, just 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Moscow.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But after the deal was struck, Prigozhin announced that he had decided to retreat to avoid “shedding Russian blood.” His troops were ordered back to their field camps in Ukraine, where they have been fighting alongside Russian regular soldiers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prigozhin has demanded the ouster of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, long the target of his withering criticism for his conduct of the war in Ukraine. On Friday, he accused forces under Shoigu's command of attacking Wagner camps and killing “a huge number of our comrades.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prigozhin did not say whether the Kremlin had responded to his demand. Peskov said the issue could not have been discussed during the negotiations, which were conducted by the president of Belarus, and is the “exclusive prerogative of the commander in chief.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If Putin were to agree to Shoigu’s ouster, it could be politically damaging for the president after he branded Prigozhin a backstabbing traitor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Early Saturday, Prigozhin’s private army appeared to control the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a city 660 miles (over 1,000 kilometers) south of Moscow, which runs Russian operations in Ukraine, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A nighttime video from the city posted on Russian messaging app channels showed people cheering Wagner troops as they left Rostov-on-Don. Prigozhin was seen riding in one of the vehicles, and people greeted him and some ran to shake his hand as he lowered the window. The regional governor later said that all of the troops had left the city.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wagner troops and equipment also were in Lipetsk province, about 360 kilometers (225 miles) south of Moscow.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Authorities declared a “counterterrorist regime” in Moscow and its surrounding region, enhancing security and restricting some movement. On the southern outskirts, troops erected checkpoints, arranged sandbags and set up machine guns. Crews dug up sections of highways to slow the march.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin declared Monday a non-working day for most residents as part of the heightened security, a measure that remained in effect even after the retreat.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The dramatic developments came exactly 16 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s largest conflict since World War II, which has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and reduced cities to rubble.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukrainians hoped the Russian infighting would create opportunities for their army to take back territory seized by Russian forces.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that even with a deal, Putin’s position has probably been weakened and “these events will have been of great comfort to the Ukrainian government and the military.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Saturday, shortly before Prigozhin announced his retreat, that the march exposed weakness in the Kremlin and “showed all Russian bandits, mercenaries, oligarchs” that it is easy to capture Russian cities “and, probably, arsenals.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Switching into Russian in his daily video address, Zelenskyy said “the man from the Kremlin” was “very afraid.” He repeated his calls for the West to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets and ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prigozhin had vowed earlier that his fighters, whom he said number some 25,000, would not surrender because “we do not want the country to live on in corruption, deceit and bureaucracy.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Regarding the betrayal of the motherland, the president was deeply mistaken. We are patriots of our homeland,” he said in an audio message on his Telegram channel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He posted video of himself at the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don and claimed his forces had taken control of the airfield and other military facilities in the city without any deaths or even “a single gunshot.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russian media, however, reported that several helicopters and a military communications plane were downed by Wagner troops. The Kremlin referred a question about the losses to the Defense Ministry, which has not commented.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The short-lived rebellion came as Russia is “fighting the toughest battle for its future,” Putin said, with the West piling sanctions on Moscow and arming Ukraine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The entire military, economic and information machine of the West is waged against us,” Putin said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State-controlled TV networks led their newscasts with Putin’s statement and reported the tense situation in Rostov-on-Don. Broadcasters also carried statements from top Russian officials and lawmakers voicing support for Putin, condemning Prigozhin and urging him to back down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who in the past has sided with Prigozhin in his criticisms of Russia’s military, also expressed support for Putin’s “every word.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The mutiny needs to be suppressed,” Kadyrov said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wagner troops have played a crucial role in the Ukraine war, capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut, an area where the bloodiest and longest battles have taken place. But Prigozhin has increasingly criticized the military brass, accusing it of incompetence and of starving his troops of munitions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In announcing the rebellion, Prigozhin accused Russian forces of attacking the Wagner camps in Ukraine with rockets, helicopter gunships and artillery. He alleged that Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff, ordered the attacks following a meeting with Shoigu in which they decided to destroy the military contractor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Defense Ministry denied attacking the camps.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 62-year-old Prigozhin, a former convict, has longstanding ties to Putin and won lucrative Kremlin catering contracts that earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He gained attention in the U.S. when he and a dozen other Russian nationals were charged with operating a covert social media campaign aimed at fomenting discord ahead of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory. Wagner has sent military contractors to Libya, Syria, several African countries and eventually Ukraine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The rebellion appeared likely to further hinder Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, as Kyiv’s forces probed Russian defenses in the initial stages of a counteroffensive.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Orysia Lutsevych, the head of the Ukraine Forum at the Chatham House think tank in London, said the infighting could create confusion and potential division among Russian military forces.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Russian troops in Ukraine may well now be operating in a vacuum, without clear military instructions, and doubts about whom to obey and follow,″ Lutsevych said. “This creates a unique and unprecedented military opportunity for the Ukrainian army.” AP/UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>