NATO has to strengthen its eastern borders if Belarus accepts Prigozhin – Lithuanian President
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has warned that NATO will have to strengthen its eastern borders if Belarus accepts Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Source: The Guardian citing Nausėda after a meeting of the State Security Council, at which they discussed the attempted rebellion of the Wagner mercenaries.
Quote: "If Prigozhin or part of the Wagner group ends up in Belarus with unclear plans and unclear intentions, it will only mean that we need to further strengthen the security of our eastern borders."
Previously: Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda reacted to the events in Russia, where mercenaries from the Wagner Group launched an armed rebellion.
Background:
- On the evening of 23 June, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that the regular Russian army had launched a missile strike on the Wagner mercenaries’ rear camps. He therefore deployed 25,000 of his mercenaries "to restore justice".
- On the morning of 24 June, Prigozhin claimed that his forces had taken control of military facilities in Rostov-on-Don, including the air base, and were heading "to Moscow" and that his soldiers had shot down three Russian helicopters. Wagner mercenaries also seized military facilities in the Russian city of Voronezh.
- In an emergency address on 24 June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was "fighting for survival" and that attempts were being made to "organise a rebellion" in the country.
- On the afternoon of 24 June, Russian media reported that the Office of the President of the Russian Federation anticipated that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group fighters were likely to reach Moscow’s outskirts in the next few hours, with fighting expected near Russia’s capital. Ukrainian intelligence had information that Putin had urgently left Moscow for his residence in Valdai. The convoy of the Wagner Group’s forces was spotted 400 kilometres from Moscow.
- On the evening of Saturday, 24 June, after a conversation with Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus, Prigozhin announced that his mercenaries were turning their convoys around and going in the opposite direction, back to their field camps. Later, the Kremlin announced that the criminal case against Prigozhin would be closed and he would "go to Belarus".
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