The President of Belarus assures that Prigozhin “is in Saint Petersburg” The head of the Wagner mercenary group allegedly traveled to Belarus after his rebellion in opposition to the Kremlin The Belarusian president guidelines out that Putin may very well be so “vengeful” or “malignant” as to finish Prigozhin
The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, affirmed this Thursday that the chief of the Wagner Group, Yevgeni Prigozhin, isn’t in Belarusian territory, as he himself declared final week, however in Russia, a rustic the place he launched a revolt in June that put into query the management of Vladimir Putin.
Prigozhin allegedly traveled to Belarus as a part of a deal mediated by Lukashenko. The Russian authorities then promised to not prosecute the chief of the mercenary community for his insurrection, which resulted in an obvious exile of which there’s solely an announcement by Lukashenko confirming his arrival.
“I advised him: whether it is needed to finish this battle, I’m keen to obtain you in Belarus and assure your security,” he recalled, alluding to the utmost pressure beneath which Russia lived for a couple of hours and inside the framework of which Belarus even mobilized forces with a view to their potential switch to Moscow “if needed” to defend town.
The chief of the Wagner Group has not reappeared in public after the disaster and has restricted himself to disseminating voice recordings, avoiding the criticism that he had been directing for months on the Russian army management, personified by the Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, and linked to the event of the army offensive in Ukraine.
Now, the Belarusian president has assured that Prigozhin “is in Saint Petersburg”, clarifying that he doesn’t know the place he’s “this morning”. “Maybe he went to Moscow, or to a different place, however he isn’t in Belarus,” Lukashenko concluded, in a speech to journalists collected by the official BelTA information company.
He has assured that he spoke with Prigozhin on Wednesday, however “solely” about the way forward for the Wagner Group, and has averted assessing what his future could also be. She has not wished to enter into hypothesis, though she has dominated out that Putin may very well be so “vengeful” or “evil” as to advertise his loss of life in a technique or one other: “This is not going to occur.”
Lukashenko has additionally dominated out that the mutiny launched by Prigozhin, whose troops got here to advance in direction of Moscow, have revealed a supposed “weak point” of Putin. On the opposite, he believes that the Russian president has emerged stronger from this disaster.
Regarding the presence of the Wagner Group in Belarus, he identified that it doesn’t contain “nothing extraordinary” and, in actual fact, he trusts that the mercenaries can share their “intensive expertise” in fight with the native Armed Forces. Lukashenko has defined that the potential deployment on Belarusian soil would require the signing of some sort of settlement and has made it clear that he won’t ever give the inexperienced gentle if Moscow doesn’t agree.
Zelensky “is not going to win this battle”
Lukashenko has once more charged Western governments for the affect they exert on Ukraine and has denounced Ukrainian techniques, together with the alleged use of drones. In this sense, he has known as for reversing the present discourse that entails presenting him and Putin as “some sort of barbarians who steal youngsters and eat them”, alleging that if minors are deported it’s with the goal of “saving” them.
For Lukashenko, the fixed stress from the President of Ukraine, VolodÃmir Zelenski, with a view to the summit of NATO leaders exhibits that “he has realized that he is not going to win the battle”, that the counteroffensive that started in early June “will solely provoke the loss of life of 1000’s and 1000’s of individuals”.
Despite all the pieces, he sees room for negotiation and now even sees Europe “prepared” for it. Belarus as soon as once more presents to host this hypothetical dialogue course of. “There are prospects to sit down down on the negotiating desk and attain an settlement. I’ve no doubts. Tomorrow could also be too late,” mentioned Lukashenko, pointing to the potential “essential position” that Russia can play if the Asian big is keen to hitch the trigger.
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