Wagner Group mercenaries ‘executed’ for not backing Prigozhin’s coup as Putin ‘liquidates’ rebel battalion
TWO Wagner mercenary soldiers have allegedly been executed for failing to back an the attempted mutiny against Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Suspected assassin and Wagner commander Yaroslav Shekhovtsov, 35, has been detained in relation to the killings, according to reports.
The corpses were found close to the Voronezh-Luhansk highway, along the route used by Wagner when they attempted to overtake Moscow in late June.
The men had been shot dead and found with no identification documents on them.
A Russian media outlet reported that alleged assassin Shekhovtsov confessed to shooting the men because they did not back the armed uprising on June 24.
If Shekhovtsov did execute the soldiers, it highlights the rampant lawlessness in within Wagner- which is supposedly pro-Kremlin.
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Wagner has previously used a sledgehammer to kill “traitors” who showed support for Ukraine.
It comes as Putin himself is beginning a so-called "purge" of high ranking Kremlin leaders after he faced the biggest threat to his leadership since taking power in 1999.
Kremlin hotshots have mysteriously and systematically disappeared - sparking panic Putin's purge is on, and time could now be up for the most mutinous of them all.
General Sergey Surovikin - renowned for his merciless manoeuvres - has not been since June 24 amid rumours he knew about Prigozhin's plans.
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UK's Ministry of Defence reported that Yevkurov had been from a televised appearance of Russia's military leadership.
And adding to the intrigue, Prigozhin's sworn enemy General Gerasimov has also faded from view.
The armed revolt in June began in opposition to defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the Russian armed forces General Valery Gerasimov.
It halted suddenly after a peace deal was brokered between Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and Vladimir Putin, by Belarus dictator Alexadner Lukashenko.
Under the deal, Wagner forces and Prigozhin will move their forces to neighbouring Tsel, Belarus - within striking distance of NATO territories.
Today, members of Wagner lowered the Russian flag as they closed the group's main base in southern Russia and moved operations to the "tent city" in southern Belarus.
A soldier said after lowering the flag: "The base will cease to exist. PMC Wagner is leaving for new areas of deployment."
This week, substantial numbers of Wagner mercenaries have been seen arriving in Belarus camps.
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Billionaire Prigozhin - who faced treason charges until withdrawn by Putin - appears to continue to move freely between Belarus and Russia.
Prigozhin rose in the ranks of power of Russia after staging lavish Kremlin banquets for Putin, and running internet troll factories supporting the Russian leader.
