Mercenaries of the Wagner Group, founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, are preparing to move to Belarus under the terms of a deal that ended their rebellion against Russia’s military leadership, the group’s commander said on Saturday, Reuters reported. Agerpres.

After the uprising of June 23-24, during which Wagner’s fighters briefly captured the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and marched on Moscow, the exact whereabouts of Prigozhin and his mercenaries were unknown.

Under the terms of the deal that ended the rebellion, Prigozhin had to move to Belarus, and his men—many of them ex-prisoners who had been released early in exchange for agreeing to fight in Ukraine—had the option of moving with him. in Belarus, join the regular Russian armed forces or go home.

However, Belarusian President Oleksandr Lukashenko said on Thursday that Prigozhin and thousands of his mercenaries were still in Russia, raising doubts about the implementation of the agreement.

Wahner’s mercenaries are preparing their bases in Belarus

Anton Yelizarov, whose fighter’s nickname is Lotus, who was quoted by the channel on the Telegram application on Saturday, said that now the fighters are on vacation until the beginning of August on the orders of Prigozhin, after which they will move to Belarus.

“It is necessary to prepare bases, training camps, coordinate actions with local authorities and administrations, organize interaction with law enforcement agencies of Belarus and prepare material and technical support,” said Yelizarov, as quoted by Yevhen Prigozhin in Telegram.

Reuters reports that it could not verify the authenticity of the interview.

Prigozhin himself has kept silent for the past two weeks, which is not characteristic of him, Reuters notes. Since June 26, he has not published a single message on his favorite Telegram channel – Yevgeny Prigozhin’s press service – where he defended the uprising of his mercenaries.

Yelizarov also stated that there were no attempts by the Russian security forces to “hit” the Wagnerites after the mutiny.

Asked about recent attacks on Prigozhin by Russian state media, Yelizarov said it was an attempt by the Russian military department to damage relations between the mercenary leader and his fighters.

The attempt will not succeed, Yelizarov added, because Prigozhin created and modeled “Wagner” himself, “when the state didn’t need us.” Yelizarov compared Prigozhin and his men to the mythical King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table.

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