Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that his country was not building any special military camps for the members of the Wagner private military company, but would help accommodate them if need arose
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th June, 2023) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that his country was not building any special military camps for the members of the Wagner private military company, but would help accommodate them if need arose.
"We have not been constructing any camps yet. But if they want to � they are considering various areas now as far as I understand � we will accommodate them. Put up tents, if you please. But for now, they are in their camps in Luhansk," he was quoted by the state-run Belta news agency as saying.
Lukashenko added that he had talked on the phone with Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin, who spearheaded a short-lived mutiny in Russia on June 24, about some members of the group who intended to sign military service contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry.
"He (Prigozhin) told me the key thing was that his guys had not been home for six months to a year. It was important for him to make an agreement with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin that he would not harm them, he told me. He (Putin) promised it and he is delivering on that promise. They want to go to their families. No problem. Putin told me yesterday that if some of them did not want to sign contracts and continue combat, that was okay, they had fought enough already," Belta quoted Lukashenko as saying.
The president reiterated that no new camps were being built for the Wagner Group in Belarus.
"We suggested they take an abandoned military base. There is a fence around it, everything is in place. Put up tents. We will help as much as we can. Meanwhile, they will make up their minds on what they want to do next," Belta quoted him as saying.
Earlier in the day,�Lukashenko refuted the rumors in some news media that Prigozhin's relocation to Belarus was a "new mission on the Kremlin's instruction" and that members of the Wagner group intended to create a provocation from the territory of Belarus ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius.
