Russia live news: Italy's foreign minister says uprising improves ...
Amy Kazmin in Rome
Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said that Yevgeny Prizoghin’s aborted insurrection on Saturday had “ended the myth of the unity of Putin’s Russia” and would weaken Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
“One thing is certain: today the Russian front is weaker than it was yesterday,” Tajani told Il Messaggero newspaper. “I hope that peace will be closer.”
Tajani said that the invasion of Ukraine had become a “boomerang” for Putin, who was “paying for the problems and contradictions of the military apparatus”.
He said he hoped Kyiv’s counter-offensive would gain momentum and that “the Ukrainians would recover their independence”. Italy has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since the invasion began last year.
Ben Hall in London and Christopher Miller in New York
The aborted insurrection by Yevgeny Prigozhin saves Russia from a possible civil war, regime change and the collapse of its war effort — the 1917 revolution scenario conjured up by President Vladimir Putin on Saturday morning.
But the drama in Russia still brings benefits and potential advantages for Ukraine as it seeks to push Russian forces out of the south and east of the country.
Prigozhin’s threatened putsch came at an opportune moment for Kyiv, whose counter-offensive has made only small gains since it began. Disappointment on the battlefield has raised concerns about the ability of Ukraine’s army to smash through heavily fortified Russian positions.
Read more in the military briefing.
Courtney Weaver in Berlin
Highway restrictions were still in place in Moscow and the Tula region south of the Russian capital on Sunday morning, the country’s federal road agency reported, more than 12 hours after Yevgeny Prigozhin ended his armed uprising.
Video reports from Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency showed roads reopened around the headquarters of the southern military district, which Wagner had previously taken over.
Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, announced on Saturday evening that Prigozhin had agreed to leave Russia for Belarus, after the leader of the Wagner paramilitary group launched the first coup attempt in Russia in more than three decades.
Peter Wells in New York
The main developments:
Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday his Wagner mercenary group had agreed to stand down its attempted coup attempt and that his convoy of troops, weapons and tanks would stop their journey towards Moscow.
As part of the deal, Prigozhin agreed to leave Russia for Belarus, whose leader, Alexander Lukashenko, brokered the agreement to end the armed uprising.
Wagner fighters began pulling out from the headquarters of Russia’s southern military command in Rostov, which had been captured earlier in the day-long crisis.
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister said Kyiv’s troops had “launched an offensive in several directions at the same time” on Saturday, apparently seizing an opportunity to counterattack against Russia’s forces as it contended with the attempted coup.
Ukraine’s military said it had retaken territory in the eastern Donetsk province that had been under Russian occupation since the Kremlin’s war against the country began in 2014.
