Putin’s meeting with Prigozhin, and where they actually got to "Wagnerites"

The Kremlin yesterday, July 10, confirmed that 5 days after the failed rebellion, on June 29, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Yevgeny Prigozhin and mercenary commanders. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Wagnerians were offered “employment options.”

According to the Kremlin, the meeting took place on June 29, there are few details about it. According to foreign media, the head of the Russian Guard, Viktor Zolotov, and the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, were also present. Dmitry Peskov says:

“Putin listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them further options for employment and further combat use. The commanders themselves presented their version of what happened. They emphasized that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the supreme commander, and also said that they were ready to continue to fight for the Motherland.”

At the same time, on June 29, the Kremlin officially announced that they had no information about the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, said in an interview Reutersthat during the Prigozhin rebellion in Russia, the “Wagnerites” intended to seize the nuclear weapons stationed at the Voronezh-45 base. As the newspaper writes, the trace of one of the groups of “Wagnerites”, which could be observed in open sources, “broke off” about 100 km from the nuclear base “Voronezh-45”. Budanov noted that the Wagner fighters went much further, to the very base, intending to get hold of small Soviet-era nuclear devices in order to “up the stakes” of their insurgency.

According to the head of Ukrainian intelligence, the only barrier between Wagner fighter jets and nuclear weapons was the doors to the nuclear weapons storage. “The doors of the warehouse were closed, and they did not get into the technical part,” he said.

Reuters was unable to independently determine whether the Wagner fighters made it to Voronezh-45. Budanov did not provide evidence for his claim and declined to say what discussions, if any, were taking place with the US and other allies about the incident. He also did not say why the militants subsequently withdrew.

A source close to the Kremlin and with ties to the military partially confirmed Budanov’s testimony to the publication. The Wagner contingent “managed to infiltrate the zone of special interest, causing the Americans to become worried because nuclear weapons are stored there,” the person said, without going into details.

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