July 8 (Portal) – Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group mercenaries are preparing to leave for Belarus as part of the deal that defused their mutiny against Russian military leaders, a senior commander of the group has reportedly said.
Since the mutiny of June 23-24, during which Wagner’s fighters briefly captured a town in southern Russia and marched towards Moscow, the exact whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigoyine and his mercenaries have not been known.
The agreement that ended the mutiny stipulated that Yevgeny Prigoyine would move to Belarus and allow his men – including former prisoners released early to fight in Ukraine – to accompany him to join the regular armed forces of Russia or return home.
However, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday that Prigozhin and thousands of his fighters are still in Russia, raising questions about the deal’s implementation.
Anton Yelizarov, whose combat name is “Lotus,” said the fighters are now on vacation on Prigozhin’s orders until early August before leaving for Belarus, a channel of messaging app Telegram reported on Saturday.
“We need to prepare bases and training grounds, coordinate with governments and local administrations, organize interaction with law enforcement agencies in Belarus and set up logistics,” he said, according to the channel Evgeny Prigozhin on Telegram.
Portal could not verify the authenticity of the interview.
Yevgeny Prigozhin himself has become unusually silent over the past two weeks. Since June 26, when he defended the mutinies of his fighters, he has not posted any posts on his favorite channel Telegram – the Yevgeny Prigozhin press service.
An adviser to the Belarusian defense ministry said on Friday that no member of the Wagner group has yet visited the disused military camp where Lukashenko had offered to house the fighters.
Anton Yelizarov said Russian security forces had not tried to “hit” Wagner Group fighters since the mutiny.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has long criticized the Russian Defense Ministry and chiefs of staff for their handling of the war in Ukraine, said he launched his “Justice March” to Moscow to protest the corruption and incompetence of senior officials.
Asked about the recent attacks on Prigozhin in Russian state media, Anton Yelizarov said it was an attempt by the Russian military establishment to drive a wedge between the mercenary leader and his Wagner fighters.
(Written by Gareth Jones and Alison Williams, French version by Benjamin Mallet)