Aleksandr Lukashenko appears to have confirmed that the Wagner founder, Yevgeney Prigozhin, has landed in Belarus. On its Telegram channel the Belta news agency quotes the Belarusian leader saying: “Security guarantees, as he promised yesterday, were provided. I see that Prigozhin was already flying on this plane. Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today.”
Earlier on Tuesday the Kremlin said it had no information on the whereabouts of Prigozhin, leader of the mercenary Wagner group. Under the terms of a deal that ended the weekend’s mutiny, Prigozhin was to be allowed to move to Belarus, and his fighters were given the chance to join Russia’s regular armed forces or to move to Belarus with him. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told his regular news briefing that the deal ending the mutiny was being implemented, and that President Vladimir Putin always kept his word. He said he did not know how many Wagner fighters would sign contracts with the Defence Ministry following the deal.
Putin addressed members of Russian military units, the National Guard, security forces and others who helped to uphold order during Saturday’s mutiny by mercenary fighters at the Kremlin, saying they “essentially prevented a civil war” by acting “clearly and coherently”. The Russian president then announced a minute of silence for the army pilots that Wagner shot down and killed during their uprising. There has been no official information about how many pilots died or how many aircraft were shot down during Wagner’s rebellion but some pro-military bloggers reported that at least 13 pilots were killed during the mutiny.
Putin also said the Wagner mercenary group was entirely financed by the Russian state, which spent 86bn roubles ($1bn) on it between May 2022 and May 2023. Previously in public the Kremlin had always insisted it was a private enterprise, giving Russian authorities distance from Wagner activities.
In a speech on Tuesday in the capital of Belarus, Lukashenko, said it had been “painful” to watch events unfold in Russia, and that he had put Belarusian troops and police on full alert during the crisis.
Putin had used a Monday night address to accuse Ukraine and its western allies of wanting Russians to “kill each other” and claimed Prigozhin’s uprising was “doomed to fail”, adding that the country showed “unity” in the face of a “treacherous” rebellion.
