Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group, arrived by air in Belarus on Tuesday following a short-lived military uprising in Russia, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was quoted as saying by the country's state media.
Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and who brokered a deal with Prigozhin to halt the rebellion which broke out on Friday, said the country will provide security guarantees to the Wagner Group founder and his fighters, the Belarusian Telegraph Agency reported.
The president, also a longtime acquaintance of Prigozhin, was quoted by the agency as saying that Belarus will offer the Wagner Group an abandoned military base and other necessary support.
The group had been fighting alongside the Russian military in Moscow's war against Ukraine since February 2022.
The president said that while the group will be kept on watch in Belarus, the domestic army could receive training from the mercenaries and learn from their "hands-on" combat experience, calling it "invaluable," according to the agency.
Lukashenko said he has spoken directly with Prigozhin multiple times, who eventually dropped his demand that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov be dismissed from their roles, the agency said.
During the talks, Lukashenko said he guaranteed the "absolute safety" of Prigozhin and his fighters, the agency added.
In a televised speech Monday, Putin, speaking for the first time since the uprising, offered Prigozhin's fighters to either sign a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry or other Russian law enforcement agencies, or go to Belarus.
The insurrection, which amounted to the most serious threat to Putin in years, came to a halt when Prigozhin suddenly announced late Saturday he was calling off the advance of the Wagner group's fighters toward Moscow to avert "bloodshed."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said that Prigozhin will head to neighboring Belarus, while the charges leveled against him for mounting an armed rebellion will be dropped.
