Putin, Wagner chief reach peace agreement

Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin will move to Belarus after staging a short-lived armed rebellion against Moscow over the weekend. The Russian government agreed not to prosecute Prigozhin in exchange for ending the mutiny. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reportedly brokered the agreement. On Sunday, mercenaries with the Wagner Group returned to their base in Ukraine.

Was this a coup? Wagner troops have played a vital role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Prigozhin has increasingly accused top military leaders of withholding supplies and ammunition from the mercenaries. Late on Friday, Wagner troops left Ukraine and marched on a military command center in southern Russia, then headed toward Moscow. Prigozhin denied orchestrating a military coup, instead calling the actions of his soldiers “an act of justice.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remarked that “Russia’s weakness is obvious” in light of the rebellion.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Reichard’s conversation with military expert Bradley Bowman about the role of the Wagner Group in the war on Ukraine.