Answering questions from some journalists, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, would be in Russia, and precisely in St. Petersburg, where the headquarters of the Wagner group are located: «Maybe this morning he went to Moscow or elsewhere, but he is not on Belarusian territory,” Lukashenko said. After the armed uprising of the Wagner group last month, according to an agreement brokered by Lukashenko himself, Prigozhin and his men were to move to Belarus.
Lukashenko himself said a few days ago that Prigozhin had arrived in Belarus, but the head of the Wagner group had not officially confirmed his whereabouts. It is currently unclear whether Prigozhin has actually returned to Russia and whether he did so with the approval of the Russian government or as part of other agreements. Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, commented on the news, saying only that the Russian government “does not follow” Prigozhin’s movements.
Prigozhin’s presence in St. Petersburg was confirmed at Washington Post by a businessman in the city, who spoke to the newspaper anonymously. He said that, once in St. Petersburg, Prigozhin would get back all the money that had been seized after the failure of the armed uprising (about 100 million euros) and various weapons. For now there have been no other confirmations of what was written by Washington Post.
Speaking of the soldiers of the Wagner group, Lukashenko said instead that they are in their camps in the areas occupied by the Russian army in eastern Ukraine: until before the uprising, the Wagner group had fought alongside the regular Russian army, resulting decisive in more occasions. Lukashenko said that the offer to the mercenaries of the group to move to Belarus is still valid, but that at the moment their movements have not yet been decided. He then added that he was not worried about possible new revolts by Wagner members once they were in Belarus. At the moment it is not possible to verify Lukashenko’s version with an independent source, and therefore to know for sure whether there are no soldiers of the Wagner group in his country.
The revolt of the Wagner group had lasted more or less a day, between 23 and 24 June last. On the evening of June 23, Prigozhin had leveled unusually serious accusations against the military commands of the Russian army, after months of already complaining that Wagner was the only battalion capable of achieving results in Ukraine. The next day he had led his forces in the occupation of the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, near the Ukrainian border, and part of Wagner’s group had begun a long march which seemed destined to end in an attempt to occupy Moscow.
The revolt had stopped before Wagner’s soldiers arrived in Moscow, after an agreement with still rather obscure terms brokered by Lukashenko.
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