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Mutinous mercenary boss seems in video welcoming fighters in Belarus and telling them they won’t take part in Ukraine warfare for now.
A brand new video seems to point out the top of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they might take no additional half within the Ukraine warfare for now however to organize for “a brand new journey to Africa“.
The footage, revealed by Prigozhin’s press service on Telegram on Wednesday, is the primary video proof of his whereabouts since Wagner’s failed mutiny final month in opposition to Russia’s high army brass.
“Welcome lads … Welcome to Belarusian soil,” Prigozhin mentioned.
“We fought honourably,” he added. “You will have completed an amazing deal for Russia. What’s going on on the entrance is a shame that we don’t must get entangled in.”
On June 23-24, Prigozhin’s closely armed troops took management of the southern Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don and its army command centre steering Russia’s marketing campaign in Ukraine. They then drove an armed convoy inside 200km (125 miles) of the capital, Moscow, on what Prigozhin mentioned was a “march for justice” aimed toward eradicating corrupt and incompetent Russian commanders.
Russian President Vladimir Putin initially pledged to crush the mutiny, however hours later a deal struck by his ally Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko averted an armed confrontation.
Underneath the deal, Prigozhin and his fighters have been anticipated to maneuver operations to Belarus. However earlier this month, Lukashenko mentioned Prigozhin had visited the nation then returned to Russia.
After it was confirmed final week that Prigozhin had met Putin days after the failed mutiny, Belarus introduced that Wagner fighters could be coaching its troopers at a army vary southeast of the capital, Minsk.
Within the video, the authenticity of which was not instantly verified, Prigozhin advised his males to behave effectively in the direction of the Belarusian locals and accumulate their power for Africa, the place the mercenary group has performed an more and more central function in a number of long-running inside conflicts.
“And maybe we’ll return to the SMO [special military operation in Ukraine] sooner or later once we are certain that we’ll not be compelled to disgrace ourselves,” Prigozhin mentioned.
Since 2018, Wagner has been working in plenty of African international locations, together with the Central African Republic (CAR), Libya and Mali.
On Monday, the CAR’s presidency mentioned dozens of Wagner fighters had arrived to assist safe a constitutional referendum on July 30.
The video, which was shot after evening had fallen, additionally confirmed Prigozhin receiving a Wagner black flag, embellished with the motto “Blood, Honour, Motherland, Braveness”, from their camp in southern Russia.
Dmitry Utkin – a former particular forces officer in Russia’s GRU army intelligence, who helped discovered the Wagner Group – additionally spoke to the boys.
“This isn’t the top. That is only the start of the largest work on the earth that will likely be carried out very quickly,” Utkin mentioned earlier than switching to English. “And welcome to hell!”
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