Highlights
Early Saturday, it was reported the Wagner Group had “captured” the city of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia. A convoy of the rebel mercenaries were advancing north toward Moscow from the captured city as Putin vowed to crush the mutiny.
At midday yesterday, it was announced the Wagner Group commander, Prigozhin, and Putin’s people had reached an agreement that the charge of treason against Prigozhin would be dropped and he was leaving Russia for Belarus, the country north of Ukraine and west of Russia. Belarus is the country that allowed Putin a few weeks to move nuclear weapons into their country.
The people of Wagner Group who did not participate in the uprising will sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense and continue their work. Wagner's fighters who participated in the mutiny will not be charged. The impression is they are out of a job, but they are probably going to Belarus to continue their mission.
No one has reported where the 2,000 Wagner Group mercenaries were killed as claimed by Prigozhin on Friday, no wheat fields were set afire in Russia, and no casualties were reported with the “capture” of Rostov-on-Don over-night.
This weekend's episode looks like it was a hoax to get the Wagner Group into Belarus to be deployed 100 miles north of the Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv instead of having to fight a thousand miles across Eastern Ukraine to reach Kyiv.