MINSK, June 27. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that he handed down an order to put the republic’s armed forces on full combat alert amid the latest developments in Russia.

"I have handed down orders to put the army on full combat alert," Lukashenko said at a ceremony of presenting general’s shoulder straps to officers of the republic’s power ministries promoted to these ranks, the Pool One Telegram channel close to the Belarusian president’s press office reported.

"History remembers that the Belarusians are able to defend their homeland. We have been and will be stronger than any challenges," Lukashenko stressed.

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.