Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has ignored orders from Vladimir Putin to flee to Belarus and is still in Russia, it has been claimed.
Prigozhin's Wagner troops have also not left the camps they stayed in before the attempted coup against Moscow last month.
Wagner mercenaries left Ukraine to seize a military headquarters in a southern Russian city and rolled troops for hundreds of miles toward Moscow.
They captured the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and sent tanks to the capital, but after less than 24 hours they turned around.
Prigozhin won a judicial reprieve in a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to end the mutiny.
It allowed Prigozhin and his troops to go into exile in Belarus and Lukashenko said last week that they were there.
But today Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told reporters: "As for Prigozhin, he’s in St Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus."
He said his offer for fighters to be stationed in Belarus still stands, but, he said: "As far as I am informed this morning, fighters are in their camps. In permanent camps, where they were after their withdrawal from the front for recovery."
He also said he was not worried about the mercenaries turning on Belarus at any stage and that they could instead be used to defend the country.
Meanwhile, extraordinary disguises, an alligator and even severed heads have been discovered in the St Petersburg palace of Prigozhin after a raid by Russian security services.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) says it found guns, ammunition, gold bars, a stuffed alligator and a cupboard full of wigs at the residence where he fled.
During the FSB search, they also discovered a famed photo of the severed heads "of Wagner traitors".
Also among the items was a wardrobe full of wigs which were likely once disguises for the bald brute.
