BELARUSIAN LEADER LUKASHENKO SAYS HE WARNED WAGNER BOSS TWICE TO ‘WATCH OUT’

Sat 26 August 2023:

After Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, the leaders of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, appeared to perish in a plane crash, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that he had warned them to be on the lookout for potential threats to their lives. He also insisted that Wagner fighters would remain in Belarus.

When the failed uprising against the Wagner regime in June was put down, Lukashenko, who assisted in brokering the agreement, claimed to have convinced Putin not to “wipe out” Prigozhin and his mercenary force.

In response to Prigozhin’s apparent death in a plane crash in Russia this week, Lukashenko said on Friday that the Wagner CEO had repeatedly dismissed concerns that he was in risk of losing his life.

Lukashenko said that during the mutiny, he had warned Prigozhin that he would “die” if he continued to march on Moscow, to which he said Prigozhin had answered: “‘To hell with it – I will die’”.

Then, Lukashenko said, when Prigozhin and Utkin, who helped found Wagner and was also listed as a passenger on the plane that crashed, had come to see him, he had warned them both: “Lads – you watch out”.

Lukashenko, both an old acquaintance of Prigozhin and a close ally of Russia, said he believed that Putin had nothing to do with the plane crash.

“I know Putin: He is calculating, very calm, even tardy,” Lukashenko said.

“I cannot imagine that Putin did it, that Putin is to blame. It’s just too rough and unprofessional a job,” he said.

On Friday, the Kremlin said that Western claims that Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were a “absolute lie” but refrained from formally confirming the Wagner chief’s demise, claiming the need to wait for test results.

Lukashenko also said that Wagner fighters would remain in Belarus.

“Wager lived, Wagner is living and Wagner will live in Belarus,” Lukashenko said.

“As long as we need this unit, they will live and work with us,” he said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

______________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent