Belarussian President Aleksandr Lukashenko told reporters in a rare interview on Thursday that Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was “not on the territory of Belarus” and is instead likely in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The statement comes just weeks after Lukashenko noted that Prigozhin was in Belarus following a peace deal he helped broker.
The about-face on Prigozhin’s location has called into question the deal negotiated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the details of which still remain murky.
“We don’t follow his movements. We have neither the ability nor the desire to do so,” Dmitri Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told the Times following Lukashenko’s comments.
Wagner Group units, by contrast, remained stationed in “permanent camps,” which the New York Times reports are located in eastern Ukraine. President Lukashenko had previously opened the country’s doors to the group, even going so far as to offer an “abandoned” military base outside the nation’s capital of Minsk to house them.
Although preliminary construction had been underway to accommodate Wagner forces, Lukashenko’s comments have cast doubt on the arrangement, too. “Whether they will come here, and if so, how many of them will come, we will decide in the future.”
Moreover, according to Lukashenko, any Wagner members stationed within Belarussian national borders could be called upon for national defense purposes. “If we must activate this unit for the defense of the nation, then it will be immediately activated,” he said. “And their experience will be in high demand.”
In late June, Lukashenko help secure a last-minute deal between Putin and Prigozhin to avert armed conflict as Wagner Group forces were rapidly approaching Moscow.
The agreement reportedly prevented “a bloodbath on the territory of Russia,” Lukashenko said at the time, arguing the deal is “absolutely advantageous and acceptable” for Wagner, without referencing specific details.
Prigozhin confirmed the arrangement in an audio statement, explaining that his forces were “turning around our columns and returning to field camps according to plan.”
On Tuesday, Prigozhin resurfaced and released a rare voice message to his supporters. “I want you to understand that our ‘March of Justice’ was aimed at fighting traitors and mobilizing our society,” the former Putin ally said on Telegram on Monday morning. “In the near future, I am sure that you will see our next victories at the front. Thanks, guys!”
Prigozhin’s statement was the first since June 26, two days after he captured the city of Rostov-on-Don and led an armed column north through southern Russia.
His comments coincided with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s appearance on CNN in which he called Putin “weak.”
“We see Putin’s reaction. It’s weak,” Zelensky said in a video interview. “All that vertical of power he used to have is just crumbling down.”
Putin “doesn’t control everything,” Zelensky added. “Wagner’s moving deep into Russia and taking certain regions shows how easy it is to do. Putin doesn’t control the situation in the regions.”