Putin Admits Paying Wagner Fighters £800m In Past Year

After years of denials, Russian president says the mercenary group was funded by the state, as its leader arrives in Belarus

- CHRIS STEVENSON

Vladimir Putin has admitted that Russia's security services "stopped a civil war" during the mutiny launched by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries - whose wages and bonuses Moscow has funded to the tune of £800m over the past year.

His remarks came as the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, confirmed that the Wagner chief had arrived in his country as part of the last-minute deal that ended the extraordinary attempted coup. Mr Lukashenko said Mr Prigozhin and some of his troops were welcome to stay "for some time" at their own expense.

Mr Putin appeared outside the Kremlin to pay tribute to his troops, seeking to repair the image of strength that Saturday's events had severely damaged. Speaking in front of hundreds of military personnel, Mr Putin said the country's armed forces had proved their "loyalty to the people of Russia" in protecting the "motherland and its future".

The Russian leader claimed that Moscow had not been forced to withdraw troops from Ukraine, and he held a minute's silence in honour of the servicemen killed when Wagner forces shot down Russian military aircraft, including helicopters and a communications plane, as they marched on Moscow. The mercenaries stopped about 125 miles outside the capital.

Mr Putin was joined by Russia's defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, whose dismissal had been one of Mr Prigozhin's main demands following a months-long feud between the Wagner chief and Russia's military leadership.

While Russian authorities dropped a criminal case against Mr Prigozhin's Wagner Group - apparently fulfilling another condition of the deal brokered by Mr Lukashenko - Mr Putin appeared to set the stage for financial charges to be brought against an organisation owned by Mr Prigozhin.