Moscow, 14 July 2023 (dpa/MIA) - President Vladimir Putin said he told members of the private Russian military company Wagner they could continue fighting in Ukraine under their own command, even after their revolt against the leadership in Moscow.

"Many nodded when I said that," Putin told Friday's edition of the Kommersant newspaper as he described a recent meeting at the Kremlin with the forces led by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin.

But it was Prigozhin who rejected the offer, Putin said.

"No, the men do not agree with such a decision," Prigozhin said, according to Putin.

The mercenaries fought alongside the regular Russian army for months in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, gaining particular notoriety during the intense battles around the eastern city of Bakhmut.

At the end of June, however, after an alleged attack by Russian troops on Wagner camps, Prigozhin had the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don occupied and sent military columns marching towards Moscow.

Putin described the revolt as "treason" at the time.

Shortly before his troops reached Moscow, Prigozhin ordered a retreat after negotiations with the Kremlin, in which Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko acted as mediator.

Wagner troops are not known to be fighting in Ukraine in any significant way at the moment.

Putin also indirectly admitted to Kommersant that the Russian leadership had been relying on a private military organization that operated beyond the scope of Russian law.

"We have no law on private military organizations ... The group exists, but legally it does not exist," the Kremlin leader said.