President Joe Biden said Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin should be concerned for his safety following his attempted mutiny against top Russian defense officials.
In late June, Prigozhin and his Wagner Group troops briefly took control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and a military headquarters building with little resistance, though the Belarusian government negotiated a truce before they got closer to their intended target of Moscow.
FIVE CONTROVERSIAL AMENDMENTS COMPLICATING MCCARTHY'S JOB OF PASSING THE NDAA
"God only knows what he's likely to do. We're not even sure where he is and what relationship he has. If I were him, I'd be careful what I ate," Biden quipped on Thursday during a joint news conference with his Finnish counterpart President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki. "I'd be keeping my eye on my menu.
"All kidding aside, who knows? I don't know," he added. "I don't think any of us know for sure what the future of Prigozhin is in Russia."
Biden's trip to Europe focused on the highly anticipated NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. While he and the alliance reiterated their long-standing commitment to Ukraine, they did not provide an explicit checklist of requirements for Kyiv to join the pact.
Prigozhin's whereabouts have largely been unknown since he concluded his short-lived uprising on June 24. While Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the Wagner Group leader had arrived in Belarus, he wasn't seen publicly. The Kremlin confirmed earlier this week that Prigozhin and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on June 29, five days after the conflict ended.
The meeting lasted about three hours, and Putin invited nearly three dozen people to the meeting, including Prigozhin and his unit commanders, Dmitry Peskov said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Prigozhin's forces spent months on the front lines of Russia's war in Ukraine. Wagner troops led Russian efforts in the battle for Bakhmut, the deadliest of the war. Officials with the United States Department of Defense have said there are still "some elements" of the Wagner Group in Ukraine following Prigozhin's mutiny attempt.
The Wagner Group has operations and influence in a number of African nations, and they act on behalf of Russia's interests and will continue to do so, top Kremlin leaders have said. U.S. officials said they are still concerned about Wagner's influence there.