Russia: Ukraine Says Prigozhin ‘Humiliated’ Putin, US Agencies Had Predicted Wagner Mutiny

Wagner group fighters have left the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and are headed back to their field camps, reports say.

US spy agencies had predicted that Yevgeny Prigozhin was preparing to rise up against the Kremlin, the Washington Post and New York Times reported.

US intelligence officials conducted briefings at the White House, the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill a day before the unrest began.

The Washington Post said that spy agencies first began examining signs that Prigozhin was planning to move against the Russian military leadership in mid-June.

The New York Times said that the information was both solid and alarming by the middle of the week.

Germany’s Baerbock shortens South Africa visit over Wagner conflict

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has shortened a trip to South Africa due to the conflict which occurred between the Wagner mercenary group and the Kremlin.

Baerbock had been scheduled to head for Cape Town on Sunday afternoon, with the foreign minister also spending Monday there.

She will now attend a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday instead. Baerbock, however, is still expected to visit the South African city of Pretoria on Tuesday for talks.

Putin ‘humiliated’ by Wagner: Kyiv

Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has “humiliated” Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“You almost nullified Putin, took control of the central authorities, reached Moscow and suddenly … you retreat,” Podolyak said in a tweet, referring to Prigozhin.

He called Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who mediated a deal between Wagner and the Kremlin, a “very specific intermediary with a dubious reputation.”

“Prigozhin humiliated Putin/the state and showed that there is no longer a monopoly on violence,” Podolyak declared.

Governor: Wagner soldiers quit Rostov-on-Don in mutiny U-turn

Wagner group fighters have left the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and are headed back to their field camps, the regional governor said.

News agencies cited witnesses as seeing tanks, cargo trucks and several minivans carrying fighters leave the city.

The private military group seized Rostov’s military headquarters earlier Saturday, from where the operations for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are run.

This article first appeared on DW.