Wagnerites are not running away from Belarus – Lukashenko
Self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has insisted that the Wagnerites will be staying in Belarus despite the death of Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Source: BelTA, a Belarusian state-owned news outlet, citing Lukashenko
Quote: "The Wagner Group was, is, and will be living in Belarus, no matter how much some people might not want it to. Together with Prigozhin, we built a system for how the Wagner Group will be located. And these pictures from space show us dismantling something...
Why are we removing extra tents? [Because] we don’t need that many. The core remains here; some [of the Wagnerites – ed.] have gone on holiday, some have decided to live away, but the phone numbers, addresses, passwords and attendance of this core are known. In a few days everyone will be here, up to 10,000 people. There is no need to keep them here now. So they are not running away."
Background:
- On the evening of 23 August, a small plane crashed in Russia’s Tver Oblast. The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency said Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group, was listed as having been on board.
- The Federal Air Transport Agency’s complete list of passengers on the plane that crashed in Tver Oblast on the evening of 23 August included Yevgeny Prigozhin.
- Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking revenge for the humiliation caused by the Wagner Group mutiny and ordered the assassination of their leadership.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had nothing to do with the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in Russia.
- Satellite images from 1 and 23 August show that the Wagner Group dismantled almost a third of the tents in its camp in Tsel, Asipovichy, Belarus, over the previous month.
- On 24 August, Ukrainian border guards and intelligence reported having observed Russian mercenaries leaving the territory of Belarus.
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