Wagner chief tells troops to turn back from Moscow and ‘avoid bloodshed’

Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has told his soldiers to retreat (Picture: AFP/Reuters)

Yevgeny Prigozhin has ordered his fighters to turn around and return to their bases in order to avoid ‘bloodshed’.

The mercenary boss – who heads up the fearsome Wagner Group – had ordered troops to march on Moscow.

Mr Prigozhin said the soldiers had advanced 200 km – 124 miles – towards the city in the last 24 hours.

In a new audio message, he says he ordered troops to ‘turn back because of the risk of blood being spilled’.

He added: ‘We left on June 23 for the march of justice. In a day we travelled, not reaching 200 km, to Moscow.

‘During this time, we have not shed a single drop of the blood of our fighters.

‘Now the moment has come when blood could be shed, therefore, realizing all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed on one of the sides, we turn our columns around and return in the opposite direction to the field camps, according to the plan.’

Mr Prigozhin did not say whether the Kremlin has responded to his demand to oust Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Wagner Group block a street in downtown Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia, 24 June 2023 (Picture: EPA)

Members of the mercenary group stand on the balcony of the circus building in the city (Picture: AFP)

Security had been stepped up in Moscow after Mr Prigozhin accused the Kremlin of launching a deadly missile strike on his Wagner troops.

Wagner forces called for an armed rebellion against Russia’s military leadership as president Vladimir Putin warned the group there will be ‘inevitable punishment’.

The Kremlin leader decried the ‘betrayal’ and ‘treason’ of the Wagner group following the challenge to his military power.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke out on the developments this evening.

Servicemen of the Wagner Group military company talk to each other as they guard an area at the HQ of the Southern Military District in a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia(Picture: AP)

He highlighted the ‘complete chaos’ left in Wagner’s wake and said he was ‘sure’ the Kremlin leader had fled Moscow.

‘Today the world can see that the masters of Russia control nothing. And that means nothing. Simply complete chaos. An absence of any predictability,’ Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

And addressing Putin while switching from Ukrainian into Russian, Zelenskiy said: ‘The longer your troops remain on UKrainian land, the greater the devastation they will bring to Russia.’

Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected]. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.

Prigozhin said the soldiers had advanced 200 km (124 miles) towards the city in the last 24 hours.