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Redeployment of Wagner PMC to Belarus depends on Russian authorities — Lukashenko

If the Russian authorities consider it necessary to deploy some troops from Wagner PMC in Belarus for some rest and training, the Belarusian leader will execute the order

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko

© AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

MINSK, July 6. /TASS/. Redeployment of Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) to Belarus depends on a decision of the company’s management and Russian authorities, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday.

"It will all depend on the decision of the company’s management and Russian authorities. If they consider it necessary to deploy some troops [from Wagner PMC] in Belarus for some rest and training, I will certainly execute my order," the Belarusian leader said at a meeting with foreign and domestic media outlets attended by a TASS correspondent.

The Telegram channel of Wagner private military company founder Yevgeny Prigozhin posted several audio records with his statements on the evening of June 23, in which he claimed that strikes had allegedly been delivered against his formations and accused the country’s military leadership of that.

The Russian Defense Ministry dismissed this information as false. The units of the Wagner private military company that supported Prigozhin moved towards the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and Moscow.

In the wake of this, the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia opened a criminal case into a call for an armed mutiny. In a televised address to the nation on June 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Wagnerites’ actions a betrayal.

Later, upon agreement with the Russian leader, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko held negotiations with Prigozhin, following which the Wagner private military company pulled back its military columns and returned to its field camps. The FSB press office announced on June 27 that the criminal case had been terminated.

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Belarus Alexander Lukashenko

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