MINSK, August 25. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that he obtained information about an assassination of Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin being planned and forwarded it to Moscow in the beginning of this year.

"Last time when we flew to the UAE, I received very serious information from the deepest sources that there can ever be about an assassination attempt [being planned] against Yevgeny Prigozhin. Within two hours - I ordered that - we’ve found the Russian ambassador to the UAE, summoned him to me. I gave him a cable for the Kremlin, for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [FSB Director Alexander] Bortnikov, about the assassination attempt being prepared," Lukashenko said, according to BelTA.

According to the Belarusian leader, after a while, he contacted Prigozhin and asked if he received this information, to which the Wagner PMC founder replied that the Russian presiden warned him about the assassination attempt.

Lukashenko was in the UAE between January 25 and 30; on January 30, he departed to Zimbabwe, and, on February 1, he once again arrived in the UAE capital city of Abu Dhabi.

The Embraer passenger jet plane en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed in the Tver Region on Wednesday evening. According to preliminary information, 10 people were aboard, all of them were killed in the crash. The Federal Agency for Air Transport of Russia said that Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed as a passenger. A criminal case over charges of violation of air transport safety rules has been initiated.