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Russian governor: Wagner militants leaving Voronezh Oblast

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Russian governor: Wagner militants leaving Voronezh Oblast
A crowd surrounds a Wagner Group tank in Rostov-on-Don on June 24, 2023. (Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

Alexander Gusev, the governor of Russia's southern Voronezh Oblast, said on June 25 that Wagner militants were leaving the region a day after the group dropped its armed rebellion heading toward Moscow.

"The movement of Wagner units through Voronezh Oblast is ending," Gusev said in a Telegram post.

The travel and social restrictions, the governor said, would be lifted once "the situation is finally resolved."

Gusev's statement comes a day after Reuters reported, citing a Russian security source, that the Wagner militants had seized all of the regional capital Voronezh's military facilities on June 24.

On June 23, Prigozhin launched a rebellion "to restore justice" after alleging that a Russian missile strike on his mercenary forces' camps in Ukraine caused substantial casualties.

The biggest armed rebellion under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin was short-lived and appeared to be over by the end of June 24. Prigozhin said that his forces would return to military camps.

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Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on June 24 that the insurrection case against Prigozhin would be dropped, and he would move to Belarus.

The Wagner mercenaries are infamously known for their brutal assault tactics, most recently in Bakhmut.

Multiple countries, including the U.S., have designated Wagner as an international criminal organization.

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Asami Terajima

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Asami Terajima is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent covering Ukrainian military issues, front-line developments, and politics. She is the co-author of the weekly War Notes newsletter. She previously worked as a business reporter for the Kyiv Post focusing on international trade, infrastructure, investment, and energy. Originally from Japan, Terajima moved to Ukraine during childhood and completed her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in the U.S. She is the winner of the Thomson Reuters Foundation's Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism 2023 (Local Reporter category) and the George Weidenfeld Prize, awarded as part of Germany's Axel Springer Prize 2023. She was also featured in the Media Development Foundation’s “25 under 25: Young and Bold” 2023 list of emerging media makers in Ukraine.

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