Two days after an armed mutiny by the Wagner PMC group against Russia's top military leadership, the mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin speaks for the first time. In a 11-minute audio message, he stated the true intentions for the "march."

"The aim of the march was to avoid destruction of Wagner and to hold to account the officials who through their unprofessional actions have committed a massive number of errors," Prigozhin said.

Furthermore, Prigozhin made it clear Russian President Vladimir Putin was not the target when he vowed to stop the Kremlin's top military leadership. "We didn't march to overthrow Russia's leadership," the Wagner head declared in his latest message on Monday.

He voiced regret that his forces had "to hit Russian aviation." Prigozhin claimed that the reason his mercenary army turned around was "to avoid spilling blood of Russian soldiers."

"We were on a march to demonstrate our protest, not to topple the government," Prigozhin reiterated.

According to Prigozhin, the whole mercenary group was "categorically against the decision to close Wagner on 1 July 2023 and to incorporate it into the defence ministry,” and commanders refused to sign contracts with the Russian army.

Regarding his deal, the mercenary leader stated the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko "extended his hand and offered to find ways for Wagner to continue its work legally,” but did not divulge more information, nor did talk about his current whereabouts.

As part of the agreement to end his march on Moscow, it was reported that Prigozhin would go to Belarus. In addition, the Wagner fighters would head back to their official bases and everyone would avoid treason charges, while the leader accepted his exile for leading the rebellion on Saturday. Although the details are still unclear.