Russian President Vladimir Putin met mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin after the failed Wagner group mutiny last month, the Kremlin says.
Prigozhin, who heads the mercenary group, was among 35 Wagner commanders invited to the meeting in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added.
He said that President Putin had given an “assessment” of the Ukraine war effort and the mutiny.
The rebellion, launched on 23 June, lasted only 24 hours.
Under a deal to end the mutiny, which saw Wagner troops seize a city and march on Moscow, charges against Prigozhin were dropped and he was offered a move to Belarus.
There had been very public infighting between Wagner and Russia’s ministry of defence over the conduct of the war. Prigozhin had repeatedly accused the ministry of failing to supply his group with ammunition.
But on Monday, Mr Peskov said the Wagner chief was among the commanders who were invited to the Kremlin five days after the mutiny collapsed.
“The president gave an assessment of the company’s actions on the front,” Mr Peskov is quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
“He also gave assessment to the 24 June events. Putin listened to the commanders’ explanations and suggested variants of their future employment and their future use in combat.”
According to the spokesman, Prigozhin told Mr Putin that Wagner unconditionally supported him.
The Wagner chief’s current whereabouts are unclear.
Last Thursday Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko – who brokered the deal that ended the mutiny – said Prigozhin was in Russia.
The BBC tracked Prigozhin’s private jet flying to Belarus in late June, and returning to Russia the same evening.
The Wagner Group is a private army that has been fighting alongside the regular Russian army in Ukraine since last year’s invasion.
But following setbacks for Russia on the battlefield, Prigozhin took to social media to lash out at the high command.
He has been particularly scathing about Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov – the two most senior figures running Russia’s invastion of Ukraine.
Prigozhin did not directly condemn Mr Putin during the mutiny, but analysts described it as the biggest challenge to the president’s authority in more than two decades in power.
Meanwhile Gen Gerasimov has been seen in public for the first time since the mutiny.
There had been speculation that Wagner’s march was cancelled in return for the general’s sacking. However, footage aired on Russian TV on Monday shows him issuing orders for Ukrainian missile sites to be attacked.
He is heard discussing recent events, suggesting that the video was filmed after the mutiny.
The video suggests that President Vladimir Putin has kept both Mr Shoigu and Gen Gerasimov in their posts.
Source: BBC
