Prigozhin is Not in Belarus: Lukashenko

The founder and head of the Wagner private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is not in Belarus. This was announced by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during a meeting with journalists from foreign and Belarusian media, as reported by BelTA.

“As for Yevgeny Prigozhin. Where could he be this morning? Perhaps he went to Moscow in the morning…” said Lukashenko.

Regarding the location of the Wagner fighters, the Belarusian president stated: “As I was informed this morning, the fighters of the Wagner private military company are in their camps, in permanent camps, where they were after leaving the front for rehabilitation purposes.”

It is worth recalling that on June 24, the Wagner private military company captured the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don. This happened against the backdrop of Prigozhin's announcement that the Russian Armed Forces had struck the Wagner camps with missile attacks, a claim that was denied by both the Ministry of Defense and the FSB. A criminal case was opened against Prigozhin for organizing an armed rebellion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin characterized the actions of the insurgents as “criminal adventurousness,” “a strike from the rear,” and “treason.”

Later, the press service of the Belarusian president announced that Alexander Lukashenko had negotiated with Prigozhin and he had accepted the proposal to cease the movement of Wagner in Russian territory. Following this, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, stated that the head of Wagner would go to Belarus and that the criminal case would be closed.

On June 28, it became known that the case of armed rebellion in the FSB of Russia had been dropped.