Top US general calls off planned trip to Israel, Jordan in wake of Russia's Wagner affair

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, has canceled his planned trip to Israel in the wake of an abrupt armed mutiny by the Wagner private military group against the Russian leadership and his government.

One of Milley’s spokesmen, who were not named in reports, said late on Saturday that the top US military officer had planned to make stops in Israel and Jordan for talks with their defense officials but the visit was postponed “due to the situation in Russia.”

Milley’s trip was called off shortly before Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that he had brokered a deal for Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to halt his proclaimed advance on Moscow and end his mutiny.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was also reported to have canceled a scheduled meeting in Denmark on the Russia-Ukraine conflict just before the crisis broke out in Russia.

Before the Belarusian-mediated deal, Wagner forces claimed they were heading north in a convoy of trucks, tanks, and infantry armored vehicles, hoping they would reach Moscow before being intercepted by the Russian army.

Prigozhin had accused Russia’s military top brass of ordering a rocket attack on Wagner’s field camps in Ukraine -- where Russia has been leading a military operation -- killing “huge numbers” of his paramilitary forces.

Prigozhin had earlier demanded that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov be handed over to him.

The Kremlin said that under the agreement, a criminal case launched against Prigozhin would be dropped and that he would leave Russia and move to Belarus. The Wagner fighters involved in the overnight rebellion would not be prosecuted as agreed in the deal.

The Wagner Group is a paramilitary organization that has been fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.

Read more:

• Russia drops criminal case against Wagner chief after group ends mutiny, goes back to bases

G7 discusses Wagner’s rebellion in Russia

In a separate development on Saturday, the US-based news website Axios cited an informed source as saying that Secretary of State Tony Blinken had held a secure conference call with several Western foreign ministers to consult about the escalating situation in Russia.

The foreign ministers of France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Canada, and the European Union were on the call with Blinken, according to the source.

European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell confirmed the call in a tweet, saying, “Had a call with G7 Foreign Ministers to exchange views on the situation in Russia. Ahead of Monday’s EU Foreign Affairs Council, I am coordinating inside the European Union and have activated the crisis response center.”

Axios also quoted White House National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodge as saying that they “are monitoring the situation in Russia and will be consulting with allies and partners on these developments.”

The White House said US President Joe Biden had been briefed by his national security team and would continue to receive updates throughout the day.

Biden was also reported by Axios to have held a separate call with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to discuss the situation in Russia.

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