UPDATE - Wagner head says his fighters turned back to avoid bloodshed only 124 miles to Moscow

ADDS BELARUSIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE STATEMENT

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said Saturday his fighters were 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Moscow when they decided to turn back to avoid bloodshed.

Prigozhin said Russian authorities wanted to disband his group, and because of that they "set off for the March of Justice."

"We departed on June 23,” he said in a statement on Telegram. “In one day, we covered such a distance that it was only 200 km to Moscow. During this time, we have not shed a single drop of blood of our fighters.

"Now the moment has come when blood can be shed, therefore, understanding all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed on one of the sides, we turn our columns around and go back to the field camps according to the plan," he said.

Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko separately said he had been in talks with Prigozhin the entire day, which led to Prigozhin's agreement to de-escalate.

"This morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin informed his Belarusian counterpart about the situation in the south of Russia with the private military company Wagner. The heads of state agreed on joint actions.

"As a follow-up to the agreements, the President of Belarus, having further clarified the situation through his own channels, in coordination with the president of Russia, held talks with the head of the Wagner PMC (private military company), Yevgeny Prigozhin," Lukashenko's press service said in a statement.

As a result, the sides came to "an agreement on the inadmissibility of unleashing a bloody massacre on the territory of Russia," it said. "Yevgeny Prigozhin accepted the proposal of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to stop the movement of armed people of the Wagner company on the territory of Russia and further steps to de-escalate tension.”

The statement added that "there is an absolutely beneficial and acceptable solution to the situation on the table, with security guarantees for the fighters of Wagner PMC (private military company)."

Following Prigozhin's announcement, the press service of the president of Belarus released a statement that said Putin called Lukashenko to thank him for his mediation efforts.

"Today at 9 pm (1800 GMT), the presidents of Belarus and Russia spoke on the phone again. The president of Belarus informed the president of Russia in detail about the results of negotiations with the leadership of the Wagner Private Military Company. The Russian president supported and thanked his Belarusian counterpart for the work done," it said.