CNN  — 

A video emerged Wednesday that appears to show Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin greeting his fighters in Belarus.

If confirmed, it would be the first time Prigozhin has been seen in public since he and his mercenaries led an armed rebellion in Russia last month.

“Welcome guys! I am happy to greet you all. Welcome to the Belarusian land! We fought with dignity! We have done a lot for Russia,” a man resembling and sounding like Prigozhin says in the video, which was posted on pro-Wagner Telegram channels on Wednesday and then shared on Prigozhin’s account.

In the video, a fighter seemingly addresses the Wagner leader as “Yevgeny Viktorovich,” Prigozhin’s first name and patronymic. The video appears unedited and metadata on the file suggests it was created on Wednesday at dawn.

The video is grainy and filmed in low light so CNN cannot definitively say the speaker is Prigozhin or when it was filmed. CNN is working to geolocate the footage.

In the video, the Wagner leader seemed to reprise his long-held criticisms of the Russian Ministry of Defense’s planning and execution of military operations in Ukraine.

“What is happening now at the front is a disgrace in which we do not need to participate. We need to wait for the moment when we can prove ourselves fully,” Prigozhin said. “Therefore a decision was taken for us to station here in Belarus for some time. I am sure that during this time we will make the Belarusian army second greatest in the world. And if needed, we will defend them if it comes to it.”

“I want to ask everyone to really pay attention to the fact that Belarusians welcomed us not only as heroes, but also as brothers,” he added.

The Wagner founder goes on to suggest their stay in Belarus could be temporary and calls on his fighters to prepare to travel elsewhere.

“We should prepare, get better and set off on a new journey to Africa,” he said. “Maybe we will return back [to Ukraine] when we will be confident that we will not be asked to make an embarrassment of ourselves and our experience.”

This is a developing story, more to follow…