Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed the army for its quick response in the face of the recent mutiny by Wagner paramilitary group and saving the country from a civil war.
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Addressing some 2,500 members of the military, the security forces, and the National Guard inside the Kremlin's Cathedral Square on Tuesday, Putin said they "de facto stopped the civil war" over the weekend.
"You saved our homeland from turmoil, and actually stopped civil war," Putin told the troops. "You have defended the constitutional order, the lives, security and freedom of our citizens. You have saved our Motherland from upheaval."
He said that an unspecified number of Russian military pilots had been killed when trying to stop the advance of the Wagner mutineers toward Moscow on Saturday.
"In the confrontation with the insurgents our comrades-in-arms, the aviators died," said the president. “They did not falter and carried out their orders and their military duty with honor."
Putin said the mutineers and the people he said had been "dragged into the rebellion" had seen that the Russian army and the people were not on their side.
The Wagner paramilitary group has been fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.
Accusing Russian forces of striking and killing “a huge amount” of his fighters, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces crossed the border from Ukraine into Russia on June 23, entering the city of Rostov-on-Don.
Prigozhin threatened that his men would destroy anyone who stood in their way. He claimed his forces had shot down a Russian military helicopter that “opened fire on a civilian convoy.”
The mutiny, which lasted less than 24 hours, came to an end after the Wagner leader agreed to turn his troops back from their march to the Russian capital.
The agreement was brokered by Belarus. Moscow said Prigozhin agreed to a deal with President Putin to stop the mutiny in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
The Wagner boss released an 11-minute recording Monday, explaining that the armed march he led in Moscow over the weekend was “to demonstrate our protest, not to topple the government.”
In Moscow, Prigozhin stands accused of mounting a coup.
