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Russian President Vladimir Putin said he offered Wagner mercenaries a chance to serve under the same commander during a meeting just days after their mutinous march on Moscow was thwarted.
Putin gave details of his offer to Wagner Group commanders, including chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, in comments published Friday in the business daily Kommersant, The Associated Press reported. He met with the 35 mercenaries for about three hours on June 29 and spoke to them about their actions in Ukraine, attempted mutiny — which had publicly called an act of treason — and opportunities for future service.
One option was for Wagner to continue operating under the same commander, a man who goes by the call name "Gray Hair" and has led the mercenaries' operations in Ukraine for the past 16 months.
"All of them could have gathered in one place and continued to serve," Putin reportedly told Kommersant, "And nothing would have changed for them. They would have been led by the same person who had been their real commander all along."
PUTIN HELD MEETING WITH WAGNER CHIEF PRIGOZHIN DAYS AFTER THWARTED MUTINY SAYS KREMLIN
Russian President Vladimir Putin is pictured in Moscow on Thursday, July 13, 2023. Putin revealed new details of his meeting with Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to the business daily Kommersant on Friday. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Putin claimed that several Wagner commanders nodded when he made this offer, but Prigozhin, who was sitting in the front and could not see their approving gestures, quickly rejected the idea and told Putin "the boys won't agree with such a decision."
The Russian president did not reveal the terms of his eventual settlement with Wagner, if any such agreement was reached.
Putin previously said that Wagner fighters must choose whether to fight for the Russian Defense Ministry, go into exile in Belarus or retire from service.
He also observed that Wagner operates in murky legal territory.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group military company, looks from a military vehicle leaving an area of the HQ of the Southern Military District in a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on June 24, 2023. Putin met with Prigozhin on June 19, just five days after Wagner Group troops staged a stunning but short-lived rebellion against Moscow authorities. (AP Photo, File)
"There is no law on private military organizations. It simply doesn’t exist," he reportedly told Kommersant, adding that the government and the parliament have yet to discuss the issue of private military contractors.
Putin had spent the days following the mutiny by discrediting Prigozhin and claiming that the Russian people did not support his mutinous takeover of Rostov-on-Don and subsequent march toward Moscow.
Putin’s claims are in contrast to the seemingly jovial images that surfaced following Wagner’s bloodless takeover of the southern city, which also serves as headquarters of the Russian southern military district command whose 58th Combined Arms Army is fighting in southern Ukraine.
Prigozhin has repeatedly claimed he was not rebelling against Putin but against his top military commanders, including Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who he says mistreated Wagner forces in Ukraine.
In this handout image taken from a video released by Prigozhin Press Service on Friday, May 5, 2023, head of Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin stands in front of multiple bodies lying on the ground in an unknown location. (Prigozhin Press Service via AP, File)
The mutiny, which Prigozhin dubbed a "march for justice," faced little resistance and fighters downed at least six military helicopters and a command post aircraft, killing at least 10 airmen. It was allegedly ended by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who brokered a deal between the mercenary leader and Putin, though the exact details of this agreement remain unknown.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Wagner forces were completing a handover of its weapons to the Russian military.
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Their disarming of Wagner reflects efforts by Russian authorities to defuse the threat they posed, and also appears to herald an end to the mercenary group’s operations on the battlefield in Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces are engaged in a counteroffensive.
Fox News' Caitlin McFall and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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