Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus said that he forewarned the chiefs of Russia’s Wagner mercenary, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and Dmitry Utkin, to watch out for likely dangers to their lives, and urged that Wagner soldiers would stay in Belarus following the prominent deaths of their chiefs in a aircraft crash.
The Belarusian leader said at the time that he had persuaded Putin not to “wipe out” Prigozhin and his mercenary force.
The Wagner chief had twice ignored circumstances raised about potential threats to his life, Lukashenko commenting on Prigozhin’s prominent death.
Prigozhin had replied: To hell with it – I will die when he was alerted by Lukashenko that he would “die” if he continued to march on Moscow.
Then, the Belarusian leader said, when Prigozhin and Utkin had come to see him, he had alerted them both: “Lads – you watch out”.
However, it wasn’t clear from Lukashenko’s cautions, which were reported by Belarusian state news agency BelTA when that discussion took place with the Wagner chiefs.
I believe Putin had nothing to do with the aircraft crash, Lukashenko said.
On Friday, the Kremlin said that Western recommendations that Prigozhin had been killed on its directives were an “absolute lie”, while also refusing to definitively confirm the Wagner chief’s death, mentioning the necessity to wait for test outcomes.
