Wagner Group does not EXIST, says Putin in chilling warning amid fears boss Prigozhin has been killed or jailed | The Sun

FURIOUS Vladimir Putin has chillingly insisted Wagner Group "does not exist" just weeks after their botched coup rattled the tyrant.

Yevgeny Prigozhin – the maniac leader of the feared private army – is feared to have been killed or jailed as he has vanished from the public eye.

With no word from the crazed warlord, Putin – enraged at the attempt to topple him – has now fuelled speculation about his potential demise.

He told Russian newspaper Kommersant: "But Wagner does not exist.

"There is no law on private military organsations. It just doesn't exist."

As Wagner's troops marched towards Moscow on June 23, Putin vowed to crush the mutiny and have his revenge.

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But the steaming rebellion was blown out after Prigozhin struck a bitter deal with the despot – putting an end to an astonishing 36-hours that saw Wagner forces reach within 125 miles of the capital.

The fate of that deal as well as of Wagner and Putin's ex-lapdog Prigozhin, however, has been cloaked in mystery.

The Kremlin said Russia's deranged president sat down with Prigozhin and his senior Wagner Group commanders late last month to hear his reasons for the short-lived armed insurrection days earlier.

But no pictures of the reported meeting have been published – and experts have cast doubt over whether it really happened.

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Robert Abrams, a retired general who served as the commander of US Forces in Korea, believes Prigozhin is either dead or rotting away in a Russian gulag.

He told ABC News: "My personal assessment is that I doubt we’ll see Prigozhin ever again publicly.

"I think he'll either be put in hiding, or sent to prison, or dealt with some other way, but I doubt we’ll ever see him again."

It comes as Wagner mercenaries downed arms and were reported to be preparing to be disbanded on Thursday.

Footage appeared to show a column of Wagner troops on the move in Russia while images showed the convoy of military vehicles heading north along the M4 highway.

But due to their Belarusian number plates, a Russian military expert suggested the contract-killers could be heading to encampments in Belarus.

Prigozhin led a failed rebellion that saw his mercenaries seize control of the city of Rostov-on-Don on June 24.

The 62-year-old then ordered his forces to march on Moscow, but suddenly called a halt after Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko brokered a truce with furious Kremlin officials.

Under the agreement, Prigozhin would be spared charges of treason if he agreed to be exiled to Belarus.

However, Lukashenko now claimed Prigozhin was back in Russia.

According to official flight tracking data, one of his private jets has made several trips between Belarus and Russia in the past few weeks.

He was reportedly seen in the St Petersburg office of the FSB last week, where he collected weapons that were confiscated during a raid on his mansion.

Not long after, Prigozhin released an audio message thanking supporters of the Wagner coup, in which he said was "aimed at fighting traitors and mobilizing our society".

Prigozhin’s current whereabouts and future plans are unknown.

Some insiders believe the warmonger is extremely sick and that his cancer diagnosis may have spurred his decision to launch the coup.

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Other experts believe Prigozhin is walking with a target on his back.

Mike Pompeo, the former US Secretary of State, told WABC: "I wouldn't insure his life… Prigozhin clearly took a chance."

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