Wagner rebel chief halts tank advance on Moscow ‘to stop bloodshed’

Putin denounces former ally Yevgeny Prigozhin's treason' as mayor tells capital's citizens to stay at home

Read more: Why did Wagner turn on Putin and what does it mean for Ukraine?

Russia last night appeared to have averted an immediate descent into civil war after mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said he would order his Wagner fighters to end their march on Moscow and return to their bases in southern Russia.

At the end of an extraordinary day, during which a visibly angry Vladimir Putin had made an emergency television broadcast railing against the deadly threat to our state", Progozhin said that he wanted to avoid shedding Russian blood and would order his troops back to their bases instead.