MINSK, July 6. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) founder Yevgeny Prigozhin is currently not in Belarus, but rather is located in Russia while his fighters are quartered at their permanent base camps.
"As far as I’ve been informed, as of this morning, the fighters are at their permanent base camps where they have been located since withdrawing from the frontline for rest and recuperation. After Bakhmut (Artyomovsk in Russian - TASS), they withdrew to their camp. That’s where they are located. As for Evgeny Prigozhin, he is in St. Petersburg. Maybe he went to Moscow, but he is not on Belarusian soil," he said at a meeting with representatives of foreign and Belarusian media outlets.
Lukashenko also said that Prigozhin was not imprisoned. "We talked several times over the phone. I think, yesterday, we had a phone conversation in the afternoon. We discussed the PMC’s further actions," he said, adding that the PMC chief told him that the Wagner fighters will "work toward Russia’s well-being in the future and perform their duty until the end." The Belarusian president said that he had made arrangements to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future to discuss the situation around Prigozhin.
No risks
According to Lukashenko, the relocation of Wagner fighters to Belarus "will depend on the decision made by the Wagner PMC and Russia’s leadership." "If they deem it necessary to deploy a certain number of fighters in Belarus to rest or train, I will carry out my decision," he said.
The Belarusian leader stressed that he did not see any risk in deploying the PMC on Belarusian soil. "I do not think that Wagner would rebel somewhere and turn their weapons against the Belarusian leadership and government. I do not see such a situation today. <...> I absolutely see no risks from deploying the Wagner PMC <...>," the president noted.
"If it becomes necessary to engage them, we will engage them immediately," he said.
In his opinion, Wagner PMC’s fighters and commanders could share their expertise with the Belarusian armed forces. "I mean the military expertise they’ve accumulated," he specified.
If they are deployed in the country, Belarus will conclude a contract with them, Lukashenko added. "If the Wagner PMC is here, they will protect our interests. When they make a decision to be stationed here, a contract will be concluded with them, legal liability, where everything will be spelled out. Then restrictions, limitations will be determined at the level of the law [or a] presidential decree," he explained.
Lukashenko noted that Minsk offered some mothballed Belarusian military bases as housing for the Wagner group but the PMC had its own opinion on this issue and it has not yet been decided.
Position reinforced
Replying to questions about the situation in Russia during Prigozhin’s attempted mutiny on June 23-24, Lukashenko said that, in his opinion, the situation did not weaken Putin’s position. "Don’t even hold your breath for it. There was no vacillation, no weakening; Putin was fully engaged in carrying out his duties," he said.
According to Lukashenko, the situation around the Wagner PMC served to bolster ties between Belarus and Russia.
He also said that, during the mutiny attempt, several aircraft were ready to deploy Belarusian troops to defend Moscow. "The first five or seven planes, I don’t remember anymore, it’s a known fact, landed in Belarus to redeploy a Belarusian special forces brigade near Moscow," he said, adding that in the end, they "did not go anywhere but they were on full combat alert."
Lukashenko did not hold any consultations with other countries over the mutiny. "I knew what to say myself, without any consultations," he said. He noted that he had not interacted with China either and "had it taken place, it would have been with one person only, with [Chinese President] Xi Jinping." "We did not talk and such a conversation was hardly possible even if I had wanted to [have it]," the Belarusian leader added.
The Wagner mutiny
On the evening of June 23, several audio recordings were posted on Prigozhin’s Telegram channel. In particular, he claimed that his units had come under attack, blaming the Russian military. The Russian Defense Ministry slammed the Wagner boss’ allegations of a military strike on the PMC’s "rear camps" as fake news. The PMC units supporting Prigozhin occupied Rostov-on-Don and then headed toward Moscow. The FSB opened a criminal case concerning calls for armed mutiny. Putin, in a televised address to the nation on June 24, described the Wagner group’s actions as an armed mutiny and a betrayal.
Later, Lukashenko, in coordination with Putin, held talks with Prigozhin, resulting in Wagner standing down, turning its units around, and retreating to their base camps. The Kremlin said that the Russian authorities pledged not to prosecute those Wagner PMC fighters who took part in the mutiny in light of their "frontline achievements." The criminal case on armed mutiny was dropped, the FSB said.
On June 27, Lukashenko said that he had offered the Wagner chief an abandoned military base in Belarus to station his fighters.