BELARUSIAN President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday the leader of Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was in Russia after saying he was in Belarus last week.
Prigozhin, who was supposed to have moved to Belarus as part of a deal to defuse a mutiny by the forces of his private army, was in St. Petersburg and “not on the territory of Belarus,” Lukashenko said.
He said that Wagner forces had not moved to Belarus either and remained on their bases in eastern Ukraine and southern Russia but that his offer for them to relocate to Belarus was still open.
“At present, the issue of their relocation has not been resolved,” Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko added that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not seek to destroy Prigozhin because he was not “malevolent and vindictive” and said he would discuss Wagner’s future with the Russian leader when he met with him in the near future.
The Kremlin also said it was “not following” Prigozhin’s movements.
The exact movements of Prigozhin, are unclear apart from the fact Lukashenko confirmed his arrival in Belarus on June 27.
