Belarus leader Lukashenko says he urged Wagner’s Prigozhin to ‘watch out’ – National | 24CA News
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko mentioned on Friday that he had warned Russian mercenary chiefs Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin to be careful for potential threats to their lives, and he insisted that Wagner fighters would stay in Belarus.
President Putin initially vowed to crush Prigozhin’s June mutiny, evaluating it to the wartime turmoil that ushered within the revolution of 1917, however hours later a deal was clinched to permit Prigozhin and a few of his fighters to go to Belarus.
Lukashenko, who helped dealer the deal, used jail slang shortly after the mutiny to say that he had persuaded Putin to not “wipe out” the mercenary who was listed as a passenger on a personal jet which crashed on Wednesday north of Moscow.
Prigozhin, Lukashenko mentioned on Friday, had twice dismissed issues raised by the Belarusian chief about potential threats to his life.
Lukashenko mentioned that throughout the mutiny he had warned Prigozhin that he would “die” if he continued to march on Moscow, to which he mentioned Prigozhin had answered:
“‘To hell with it – I will die.’”
Then, Lukashenko mentioned, when Prigozhin and Utkin, who helped discovered Wagner and was additionally listed as a passenger on the aircraft which crashed, had come to see him, he had warned them each:
“Lads – you watch out.”
It was not precisely clear from Lukashenko’s phrases, which had been reported by state news company BELTA, when that dialog occurred.
Lukashenko, each an outdated acquaintance of Prigozhin and shut ally of Russia, mentioned that Putin had nothing to do with the aircraft crash.
“I know Putin: he is calculating, very calm, even tardy,” Lukashenko mentioned. “I cannot imagine that Putin did it, that Putin is to blame. It’s just too rough and unprofessional a job.”
The Kremlin mentioned on Friday that Western options Prigozhin had been killed on its orders had been an “absolute lie” whereas declining to definitively affirm his loss of life, citing the necessity to watch for check outcomes.
Lukashenko mentioned Wagner fighters would stay in Belarus.
“Wager lived, Wagner is living and Wagner will live in Belarus,” Lukashenko mentioned. “The core remains here.”
“As long as we need this unit, they will live and work with us,” he mentioned.
