Russia’s Prigozhin was told his mercenaries would no longer fight in Ukraine

MOSCOW - Russian mercenary chief

Yevgeny Prigozhin

had been told that his Wagner Group would no longer fight in Ukraine because he had refused to sign contracts to bring his mercenaries under the sway of the defence ministry, a senior lawmaker said on Thursday.

Colonel-General Andrei Kartapolov, an influential lawmaker who chairs the Lower House of Parliament’s defence committee, said the trigger for

last Saturday’s mutiny

was Prigozhin’s disagreement with a demand made by the defence ministry.

“As you know, a few days before the attempted mutiny, the defence ministry said that all formations performing combat tasks must sign contracts with the defence ministry,” said Gen Kartapolov.

“Everyone started to implement this decision... everyone except Mr Prigozhin.”

Prigozhin said on June 11 that his Wagner fighters would not sign any contract with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, adding that Mr Shoigu was unable to manage military units.

Gen Kartapolov said that after Prigozhin’s refusal to sign the contracts, he was told that his mercenaries would no longer fight in Ukraine and thus would not receive state money.

As a result, the lawmaker said, Prigozhin had committed treason due to “exorbitant ambitions”, money and what he cast as an “excited state”.

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Prigozhin, Wagner and his Concord catering company had received at least US$2 billion (S$2.7 billion) from the Russian state over the past year. 

Prigozhin was

packed off to an uncertain exile in Belarus

after he aborted his 24-hour mutiny.

The mercenary chief said he launched his mutiny to demand changes in military leadership he blamed for failures in the war in Ukraine, and to prevent the destruction of his force after it was ordered to submit to the defence ministry’s control. 

Mr Putin had said Wagner fighters were free to move to Belarus, join the Russian military or go home following the mutiny. He added that the rebellion had

threatened to bring civil war to Russia.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said this week that

he had persuaded Mr Putin not to “wipe out” Prigozhin

, adding that the mercenary chief had flown to Belarus on Tuesday.

Russian media reported that Wagner could set up a new base at a vacant military facility near the town of Asipovichi, about 90km from Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

Mr Lukashenko invited Wagner to set up operations in his country as part of a deal that ended the mutiny last Saturday.

Satellite images show new facilities being set up in recent days, suggesting the swift construction of a base for Wagner.

Images captured by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel 2 satellites on June 27 show rows of long structures in the nearby village of Tsel, in a field which had appeared empty on June 14.

Reuters could not verify the nature of the construction. The images are publicly available through searches on the ESA website. REUTERS