PMC Wagner personnel to stay in Belarus after Prigozhin's aircraft crash
26 August 2023, 17:54
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “PMC Wagner lived, PMC Wagner lives, and PMC Wagner will live in Belarus despite anyone's wishes to the contrary. Prigozhin and I came up with a system of how PMC Wagner will be accommodated in Belarus. And these satellite images claiming that we are dismantling something… Why are we removing extra tents? We don't need that many. The core will stay here. Some are on leave. Some decided to live somewhere else but the core has their contact information. Within several days all of them will be here. Up to 10,000 people. There is no need to keep them here now. They will come here in certain batches for training. If Russia wants to take them for rotation to Africa, go ahead, we don't mind it, those people may stay here. We help and support them. This is why they are not fleeing anywhere. As many people as this unit and we need will live and work in Belarus. We will honor our promise. They know the terms.”
The head of state added: “And by the way, they pay for everything: for tents, for water. And another point. They live in tents. We are repairing barracks for them. It was my demand. They had not intended to live in tents. They have always lived in dugout shelters. I said: ‘Up to you, guys. We will help you dig them out if you want. But why? You can live like civilized people.' And they agreed. After all Belarus is not Africa or Ukraine where they were at the front.”
When asked whether the government is afraid of keeping such well-trained military force in the country, Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “Why would we want another kind? I am not sitting on a powder keg. I say it sincerely: nobody is in such a mood.”
In his words, Belarusian military personnel take pleasure in learning from PMC Wagner personnel. Particularly the internal troops and special operations forces. “I am surprised that there is no rejection. Our military personnel don't mind it. All kinds of things may happen. This is why they are absorbing everything,” the Belarusian leader noted. “I had my fears. I read publications by you and your colleagues: they are former convicts, they are the bad sort. Listen, they will help an old lady across a street and don't take change in a shop. Surprising people. Iron discipline. If you are afraid of wolves, don't go into the forest. We don't keep them here for pleasure but for benefits. And we've built a system to keep everything under control.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko also debunked a myth claiming that a Russian military transport aircraft landed in Belarus after the crash of Yevgeny Prigozhin's aircraft. The president said that the relevant request had been made but nobody had landed in Belarus yet.
“We definitely coordinated with Russia when PMC Wagner personnel asked for a permission to use our airfields in order to collect troops for rotation to Africa I think and some gear, equipment, and so on. Feel free to land and take them. I promised that. I guaranteed that. That's the first point. The second point is that there have been no planes. This is why these are lies. But the relevant request had been made. We received it on 21 August,” he noted.
