The office of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Saturday that he had negotiated a deal with the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who agreed to de-escalate the situation in Russia, Reuters reported. Thus, Yevhen Prigozhin agreed to stop the movement of mercenaries through Russia on the condition that the mercenaries’ safety was guaranteed.

The message, published in the official Telegram channel of the presidency of Belarus, that the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko acted in concert with President Putin and spoke with the leader of Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin.

“Negotiations continued throughout the day. As a result, agreements were reached regarding the inadmissibility of a bloody massacre on the territory of Russia,” the message reads, The Guardian reports.

Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that he had ordered his fighters who had advanced on Moscow to return to their bases to avoid bloodshed.

The uprising ended when Wagner’s fighters, led by Putin’s former associate Yevgeny Prigozhin, were already on their way to the capital, capturing the city of Rostov and marching 1,100 km to Moscow.

• “VVK “Wagner” wanted to liquidate. We went to the Justice March on June 23. In 24 hours we reached 200 km from Moscow. During this time, we did not shed a single drop of the blood of our soldiers.
• “Now is the time when blood could be spilled. Understanding of responsibility [pentru riscul] So that Russian blood is spilled on one side, we turn the columns and return to the camps, as planned,” Prigozhin said.

Belarusian President Oleksandr Lukashenko held a second telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday evening to inform him of the results of negotiations with the leader of Wagner’s mercenaries Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Belta agency reports, Reuters reports.