The leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claims his mercenaries have turned back from Moscow to avoid bloodshed. The mercenaries were said to be advancing toward the capital on his orders.

Prigozhin made the remark in an audio recording posted on social media on Saturday. He said, "Understanding... that Russian blood will be spilled on one side, we are turning our columns around and going back to field camps as planned."

Prigozhin is the head of the private military group, and has been increasingly at odds with the Russian Defence Ministry over military operations in Ukraine.

On Saturday, he claimed that his forces had captured the headquarters of Russia's Southern Military District in the southern Russian region of Rostov.
President Vladimir Putin delivered an emergency speech on Saturday in which he said his country was facing a "betrayal" and instructed the military to take decisive action.

Prigozhin has refused to surrender.

Meanwhile, the Belarusian presidential office announced that Alexander Lukashenko brokered the withdrawal of Wagner's mercenaries.

It said Lukashenko spoke with Prigozhin to encourage him to defuse tensions by halting the movement of his mercenaries operating in Russia.

Prigozhin reportedly admitted that he had accepted the proposal. But it is still unclear whether this is the result of Lukashenko's proposal.

It also remains unclear where the mercenaries are retreating to, and that is raising doubts about an early end to the situation.

At the same time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video message on Saturday evaluating the leadership in the Russian government.

He said, "...the world saw that the bosses of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all." And he described the situation as, "Complete chaos" with "Complete absence of any predictability."

Zelenskyy spoke in Russian to express confidence that Ukraine will win against Russia, saying Putin is "...obviously very afraid and probably hiding somewhere, not showing himself."

Zelenskyy warned that, "...the longer Russian troops stay on Ukrainian land, the more devastation they will bring to Russia."

He also warned that, "...the longer this person is in the Kremlin, the more disasters there will be."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said authorities will not persecute Wagner fighters who took part in the armed mutiny "given their achievements on the frontline."

He said a criminal case against Prigozhin "will be dropped, while he will go to Belarus."