The Wagner Group private military company is returning back to its "field camps," the PMC leader Evgeny Prigozhin announced late on Friday. His units staged a mutiny overnight, seizing control of multiple military and administrative installations in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, as well as launching an advance towards Moscow.

The insurrection reached the brink of major bloodshed, Prigozhin said, explaining that Wagner's advancing columns will return to their camps "according to plan."

"They wanted to disband PMC Wagner. On June 23, we went on a March of Justice in a day. We advanced on Moscow just 200km short, and during this time we did not shed a single drop of the blood of our fighters," he claimed.

During the mutiny, however, the private military outfit reportedly downed multiple aircraft and repeatedly skirmished with Russian forces.