The Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin announced that his troops marching toward Moscow would turn around, minutes after the leader of Belarus, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, said he had successfully negotiated with the Wagner boss.
The statements offered the possibility that the rapidly evolving security crisis embroiling President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia’s government could be resolved without armed fighting between Russian authorities and Mr. Prigozhin’s forces.
But Mr. Prigozhin did not say whether his forces were leaving the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, a Russian military hub he has seized.
In an audio statement posted to Telegram, Mr. Prigozhin said his forces were within 200 kilometers, or about 125 miles, of Moscow, and had reached that point without any bloodshed among his fighters.
“Now the moment has come when blood could be shed,” Mr. Prigozhin said. “So, understanding all responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be spilled, on one side, we are turning around our column and are leaving in the opposite direction to field camps in accordance with the plan.”
In a brief address to the nation on Saturday morning, Mr. Putin called Mr. Prigozhin a traitor who had delivered “a stab in the back of our country and our people.”
The confrontation has marked the most dramatic threat to the Russian president’s power since he took over leadership in 1999, and came at a pivotal moment in Russia’s war in Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces have begun a counteroffensive to take back territory.
