Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko remarked on Friday that the Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is presumed dead, did not ask for security guarantees during his time in that country.
Speaking to the media, Lukashenko noted that Prigozhin learned at some point there was an assassination attempt planned on him and informed the Kremlin and the Federal Security Service (FSB) of it. Lukashenko also said that the Wagner Group's fighters currently stationed will not leave Belarus despite the reports that allege so. "Wagner lived, Wagner lives, and Wagner will live in Belarus," he stressed.
Commenting on the cause of the plane crash that presumably killed Prigozhin, Lukashenko said, "I cannot imagine that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin did it, that Putin is to blame. Too rough, unprofessional work, for that matter." Earlier in the day, the Kremlin rejected the claims it had its hand in the aforementioned plane crash.
