Belarus Welcomes Exiled Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin After Rebellion Against Russia

Lukashenko said Wagner mercenaries were offered an abandoned military base in Belarus if they wanted to join Prigozhin. "There is a fence, everything is available, erect your tents,” he said. 

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin arrived in Belarus, three days after his failed brief coup aimed to topple the Russian military. "Yes, indeed, he's in Belarus today," Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced, claiming credit in arranging his exile, as per a BBC report. Prigozhin’s whereabouts remained a mystery since he was filmed driving off in southern Russia on Saturday night. His private jet was tracked flying into the Belarusian capital Minsk on Tuesday, as per the report. 

Lukashenko said Wagner mercenaries were offered an abandoned military base if they wanted to join Prigozhin. "There is a fence, everything is available, erect your tents,” he said. 

The brief rebellion by the mercenary group came to an end on the condition that Prigozhin will be exiled to Belarus and the Russian criminal case against Wagner would be dropped. 

Moscow is preparing to transfer the mercenaries' heavy weapons into the regular military and the fighters have been told they can either sign regular army contracts, go home or head to Belarus, the report stated. 

While Belarus welcomed the Wagner chief, Nato members Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania warned Prigozhin’s arrival could spell trouble for them as neighbours. 

The neighbouring countries would face "even greater danger of instability" if Wagner were to deploy its "serial killers" , Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told a press conference. 

On Friday, after a brief span of rebellion and turning in against Russia, Prigozhin, who had vowed to topple the Russian military, said that troops were ‘turning back’ to avoid spilling blood. 

As the rebellion mounted, Putin vowed to punish those behind the armed uprising led by his onetime protege, whose forces seized a key military facility in southern Russia before advancing on the capital. In a televised speech to the nation, he called the rebellion a “betrayal” and “treason.”

Prigozhin deserted his mission shortly after Wagner's convoy moved closer to Moscow, hours after members of the private military outfit passed through the southern city of Rostov-on-Don. In a series of video statements released since Friday, Prigozhin declared that he was advancing on Moscow to confront Russian military officials he deemed corrupt.