Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday that his aborted revolt was aimed at saving his embattled mercenary outfit and not at ousting the Russian authorities.
"We went to demonstrate our protest and not to overthrow power in the country," Prigozhin said in the first audio message since calling off the Wagner march at the weekend.
"In Russian towns, civilians met us with Russian flags and the symbols of Wagner," Prigozhin said, in his first audio message since staging and then halting the mutiny. "They were all happy when we passed through."
"Lukashenko held out his hand and offered to find solutions for the continuation of the work of the Wagner private military company in a legal jurisdiction," Yevgeny Prigozhin added in the audio message.
