July 10 (UPI) — Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the leader of the mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin last month, just days after the latter staged a failed mutiny, the Kremlin said Monday.
The three-hour meeting in Moscow took place June 29, just five days after the mutiny, according to the Russian state-run TASS News Agency.
The mutiny lasted only 24 hours before a deal was brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Prior to the truce, Putin had publicly accused Prigozhin of treason as his Wagner troops captured a city during their march toward the Russian capital.
Lukashenko’s deal saw Prigozhin and his followers offered residence in Belarus although his current whereabouts are not known.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during the late June meeting, Putin gave Prigozhin and several of his commanders an “assessment” of the Ukraine war effort as well as the mutiny.
“Putin listened to the commanders’ explanations and suggested variants of their future employment and their future use in combat,” Peskov said.
Peskov also said Prigozhin pledged unwavering loyalty to Putin.
The Wagner commander had been at odds with senior members of Russia’s defense ministry, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Prigozhin called the mutiny a “march of justice,” accusing Russian military commanders of failing to properly support his troops and launching rocket attacks that killed hundreds of them.
“The president [Putin} gave his assessment of the [private military] company’s actions on the frontline during the special military operation and the June 24 events,” Peskov said, according to the Tass News Agency
“Putin listened to explanations from [Wagner] commanders and offered them further options for employment and further use in combat. The commanders themselves shared their version of what happened [on June 24], they emphasized that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the supreme commander-in-chief, and also said that they are ready to continue fighting for the Fatherland.”
Prigozhin’s whereabouts remained unclear after Lukashenko, who said the commander had arrived in Belarus after the deal, last week said he was actually in St. Petersburg.
