A Wagner mercenary has been arrested over the shooting deaths of two of his comrades for refusing to join last month's mutiny against Russia's military establishment.
Russian Telegram accounts said how a soldier belonging to the private military company (PMC) founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, had been detained in Russia's Voronezh oblast in connection with the deaths. Newsweek has not been able to verify these reports.
On June 24, a day after he denounced Russia's military leadership and rejected Vladimir Putin's reasons for his invasion of Ukraine, Prigozhin announced a march on Moscow. He called off the mutiny after a reported deal in which he and his fighters would not be charged and instead face exile to Belarus.
Ostarozhna Novosti and ASTRA reported that the bodies of two men were found on July 6 with gunshot wounds in a forest near the village of Oskino. This is in the Khokholsky district of Voronezh region, close to the Voronezh and Luhansk highway. A stash of weapons was found next to the pair, consisting of AK assault rifles, a machine gun, grenades and cartridges.
While he was being questioned by police, the suspect said he was a Wagner fighter and that the men had been shot for refusing to take part in the rebellion, ASTRA reported.
However, the news outlet Baza named the man as Yaroslav Shekhovtsov, a citizen of the central Asian country Kyrgyzstan. Officers have not yet identified the dead mercenaries, the news outlet added. It was not clear if the suspect had orders to carry out the killings.
The Voronezh branch of Russia's Investigative Committee, which Newsweek has emailed for comment, said in a statement on Tuesday that a murder case was ongoing.
"A 25-year-old man detained on suspicion of committing this crime has confessed," the statement read, without naming the suspect or mentioning the Wagner connection.
Wagner Group troops had rolled through the Voronezh region on their way to the Russian capital on June 24, with 75 of the military vehicles reportedly splitting off towards Voronezh-45, a base that hosts nuclear weapons. Ukrainian intelligence has said the group nearly acquired nuclear weapons during the mutiny, although the Kremlin and other experts have cast doubt on that possibility.
Meanwhile, the fate of the Wagner Group and Prigozhin remains uncertain following the deal that paved the way for their exile to Belarus.
The Wagner founder's whereabouts are unknown. However, the Belarusian monitoring group the Hajun Project reported on Monday that Prigozhin's private jet had landed in the country for the fourth time.
The other occasions were on June 27, July 1 and July 11 when Prigozhin had spent the night near Osipovichi, central Belarus, where a camp for Wagner fighters has been set up, the Hajun Project said.
