Biden says ‘too early’ to know impact on Russia from Wagner mutiny

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden says it is “too early” to draw definitive conclusions on the impact of the Wagner mercenary group’s aborted march against Moscow and stresses his efforts to maintain Western unity on Ukraine.

“We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine,” Biden says at the White House. “It’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going.”

Biden stresses, however, that he and key Western allies are in close touch and that he has also told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that US support will remain strong.

“No matter what happened in Russia, we, the United States, will continue to support Ukraine’s defense and sovereignty and its territorial integrity,” Biden says he told Zelensky over the weekend, as rebel Wagner troops briefly took over a key southern Russian city and threatened to enter Moscow.

Biden dismisses conspiracy theories of Western involvement in the rebellion, saying he coordinated with European leaders on Zoom and “they agreed with me that we had to make sure we gave (Russian President Vladimir) Putin no excuse… to blame this on the West and to blame this on NATO.”

The turmoil was “part of the struggle within the Russian system,” Biden says.

The US president adds that he would be calling key allies again today. He did not say which leaders, but on Saturday he consulted with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.