President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, on Thursday, said that Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is in St. Petersburg and his Wagner troops have remained at the camps where they had stayed before an abortive mutiny. Lukashenko had last month brokered a deal to end armed the mercenary group's armed mutiny against Russia.
On June 28, Lukashenko had said that Prigozhin and other mercenaries who have fought some of the deadliest battles in Russia's invasion of Ukraine are in Belarus. The issue of relocating the Wagner group hasn't been resolved, Lukashenko said, the TASS news agency reported. He also said his offer to accommodate some fighters from the Wagner group in Belarus still stood.
According to Lukashenko, the Wagner troops remain stationed at their previous camps. The Wagner group's rebellion posed a significant threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as they swiftly captured military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don. Their eventual aim was to march on Moscow and oust the defence minister and the General Staff chief. Prigozhin had termed it the 'march for justice'.
Prigozhin on Monday, thanked his supporters in Russia over the Telegram messaging app. “Today we need your support more than ever,” he said, promising new victories at the front “in the near future,” he wrote. Lukashenko said on Thursday that Putin would not “wipe out” Prigozhin because the Russian president was not “malevolent and vindictive”.
