Wagner chief Prigozhin arrives in Belarus

Polish President Andrzej Duda says NATO needs to deliver a strong answer to the deployment of Wagner Group forces in Belarus.

Eastern European NATO countries have voiced concern that the move of Wagner's Russian mercenary troops to Belarus might create greater regional instability.

"This is really serious and very concerning, and we have to make very strong decisions. It requires a very, very tough answer," Duda said after a meeting with other NATO leaders in The Hague.

One of Lithuania's leaders also warned of the danger.

"If Wagner deploys its serial killers in Belarus, all neighboring countries face even bigger danger of instability," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said it's too early to make any final judgment about the consequences of the fact that Prigozhin has moved to Belarus, likely along with many of the Wagner Group forces.

However, he said: "We have sent a clear message to Moscow and Minsk that NATO is there to protect every ally, every inch of NATO territory."

Franak Viacorka, a chief political adviser to Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, told DW that Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's arrival in Belarus was very dangerous for Belarusian society and independence, as well as for neighboring Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

"It's very likely that Prigozhin will not arrive alone, but he will bring his mercenaries, thousands of people who were participating in torture and killings of Ukrainians. And right now, together with [Belarusian ruler Alexander] Lukashenko, they can create the nuclear threat to our neighbors and to the entire continent," Viacorka said.

He added that nuclear weapons were delivered from Russia to Belarus during the last few weeks, and Lukashenko or Russian President Vladimir Putin might be willing to use them at some point.

Viacorka said that Belarusians are shocked by the news of Prigozhin's arrival. "We don't want Prigozhin's mercenaries, we don't want Russian troops. And we will be thinking how to get rid of them as soon as possible," he added.

According to the adviser, it's very likely repressions in Belarus will increase, and Wagner Group forces will likely end up taking on the role of defending Lukashenko.

"It makes our task task of liberation of Belarus very, very challenging," Viacorka said.

Belarusian strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko confirmed that Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin is arriving in Belarus, according to state news agency Belta.

"Yes, really, he is today in Belarus," Lukashenko was quoted as saying.

Prigozhin's exact whereabouts have been a source of confusion since he launched — and quickly ended — the Wagner Group revolt over the weekend.

A business jet connected to Prigozhin flew from Rostov-on-Don to Minsk on Tuesday morning, with Flightradar24 saying it began its descent at 0420 GMT, but it was not confirmed whether Prigozhin was on that plane.

The Kremlin previously said on Tuesday that it was not aware of the Wagner chief's whereabouts.

Under the deal mediated by Lukashenko to end the mutiny, Prigozhin and his Wagner soldiers were given the option to leave Russia and go to Belarus.

Following a deal mediated by Belarus strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko that saw Yevgeny Prigozhin end his mutinous march on Moscow and agree to go to Belarus, the authoritarian leader said that the former Soviet country will benefit from the combat experience of Wagner fighters.

"If their commanders come to us and help us ... [this is] experience," Lukashenko said in a meeting with his defense minister, according to state media.

"They've been through it. They'll tell you about weapons: which ones worked well, which ones didn't. And tactics, and weapons, and how to attack, how to defend. This is priceless," he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday in his speech to military and security personnel that the Russian state had fully financed Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group, despite it being a private mercenary company.

The Russian president said this amounted to 86.26 billion rubles (around $1 billion, €930 million) between May 2022 and March 2023.

"We completely financed this group," Putin said during a speech in which he also called certain Wagner members who took part in the mutiny "traitors."

Putin said on Monday that following Prigozhin's deal to end his march on Moscow, Wagner members could choose to go home, go to Belarus with their leader or sign contracts to join the Russian army.

South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said the latest developments in Russia would not affect efforts by African countries to mediate the conflict in Ukraine. 

Earlier this month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, along with other African leaders and envoys, visited Russia and Ukraine as part of a peace mission. 

The visits were part of a preliminary trip that will be followed by further meetings in the next weeks, Pandor said.

Pandor was speaking to reporters after holding talks with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who said the aborted Wagner mutiny showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was destroying his own country.

With South Africa declaring itself neutral, Germany has been critical of its failure to explicitly condemn Russia's war in Ukraine. 

The Vatican has said that a cardinal tasked by Pope Francis with trying to help reach a peaceful solution to end Russia's war in Ukraine was heading to Moscow on Wednesday. 

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi will be in the Russian capital for two days on a trip that follows a visit to Kyiv earlier this month. 

"The main purpose of the initiative is to encourage humanitarian gestures, which can contribute to facilitating a solution to the current tragic situation and find ways to achieve a just peace," a Vatican statement said.

It was not clear whether Zuppi, who had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on June 6, would meet Russia's President Vladimir Putin. 

The French Catholic newspaper La Croix reported that Zuppi was expected to meet with Patriarch Kirill, who is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and a close ally of Putin. 

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna spoke to DW about the recent Wagner mutiny in Russia.

She said that the "Russian armed forces became the second army in Russia over the day" after "a small battalion of armed private, military men was able to get 200km to Moscow without any resistance."

"The weakness of Russia has never been so visible," she told DW.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the Wagner mercenary group's mutiny did not weaken Russian President Vladimir Putin.

With Orban in office, Hungary has maintained the closest ties to Russia among EU countries since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

"If someone speculates that [Putin] could fail or be replaced, then he does not understand the Russian people and Russian power structures," Orban said in an interview published on media outlets Bild, Die Welt and Politico, which are all owned by Germany's biggest publisher, Axel Springer.

Orban said the fact that the uprising — which he called an "event of no major significance" — ended within 24 hours was a sign of Putin's strength.

The Hungarian prime minister said his assessment was based on Putin's popularity and the strength of Russia's army, secret service and police.

Western leaders have, meanwhile, expressed that the developments showed significant cracks in the Russian system.

During his speech to law enforcement agencies, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the short-lived mutiny over the weekend had not impacted Russia's offensive in Ukraine.

"We did not have to take combat units from the special military operation zone," Putin said.

On Friday night, Yevgeny Prigozhin led his Wagner mercenary units back into Russia from their positions in Ukraine to challenge top figures in the Russian military.

"All military formations continued to wage a heroic fight at the front," Putin said on Tuesday, referring to Russia's official military units. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the people of Russia were not supportive of the short-lived mutiny launched by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. 

"Your determination and courage, as well as the consolidation of the entire Russian society, played a huge, decisive role in stabilizing the situation," Putin said in an address to the armed forces.  

"People who were drawn into the rebellion saw that the army, the people are not with them," he added.

"You protected the constitutional order, the life, security and freedom of our citizens, saved our country from shocks, stopped a civil war."

The Russian leader was addressing some 2,500 members of Russia's security forces, National Guard and military units on a square in the Kremlin complex. 

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was among the attendees. Shoigu's removal was among the main demands of the Wagner fighters as they marched toward Moscow. 

Putin presided over a minute of silence for the servicemen who were killed during the insurrection. 

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that he ordered the army to be put on full alert after being caught unprepared during the armed uprising in neighboring Russia led by Wagner mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin.

"We missed the situation, and then we thought that it would resolve itself, but it did not resolve," Lukashenko said.

"I gave all the orders to bring the army to full combat readiness," he added.

"I will not hide, it was painful to watch the events that took place in the south of Russia. Not only for me. Many of our citizens took them to heart. Because the fatherland is one," the Belarusian strongman leader said.

Lukashenko also warned that if Russia "collapsed" then "we would all die." Lukashenko's power is highly reliant on Russian support.

A business jet that the leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner has reportedly used in the past flew from Russia to Belarus on Tuesday, according to independent Belarusian military monitoring project Belaruski Hajun and a report by Reuters news agency.

Speculation has risen in recent days about the fate and whereabouts of Wagner's chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, after a short-lived mutiny over the weekend.

Minsk has said that it brokered a deal under which Prigozhin would be exiled to Belarus and halt the armed march on Moscow. However, neither he nor the authorities have confirmed his whereabouts.

Reuters reported, citing Flightradar24, that a Russian-registered Embraer Legacy 600 jet flew to Belarus.

The agency added that the aircraft's identification codes match those of a jet that Washington links to Autolex Transport. The US Office of Foreign Assets Control links the company to Prigozhin.

Russian news agencies reported that the FSB security service dropped its criminal case against the Wagner mercenary group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, over their plan to march on Moscow during the weekend.

"The criminal case open over the armed uprising by the private military company Wagner has been closed," the FSB said in a statement carried by Russian media.

According to the RIA news agency, the case was dropped because "the participants had ceased actions directly aimed at committing the crime."

RIA also reported, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, that the Wagner Group was preparing to hand over its military equipment to the government.

fb,ab/nm (AFP, Reuters, AP)