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Dec 03, 2023

Ten bodies recovered from plane crash, officials say; Belarusian president says he warned Prigozhin

The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said on Friday that he warned the Wagner group chiefs Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin to watch out for possible threats to their lives, and he

The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said on Friday that he warned the Wagner group chiefs Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin to watch out for possible threats to their lives, and he insisted that Wagner fighters would remain in Belarus.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, initially vowed to crush Prigozhin’s June mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolution of 1917, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his mercenaries to go to Belarus.

Prigozhin, Lukashenko said on Friday, had twice dismissed concerns raised by the Belarusian leader about possible threats to his life. Lukashenko said that during the mutiny he had warned Prigozhin that he would “die” if he continued to march on Moscow, to which he said Prigozhin had answered: “To hell with it – I will die.”

Then, Lukashenko said, when Prigozhin and Utkin, who helped found Wagner and was also listed as a passenger on the plane which crashed, had come to see him, he had warned them both: “Lads – you watch out.”

It was not exactly clear from Lukashenko’s words, which were reported by state news agency BELTA, when that conversation took place, Reuters reports.

Lukashenko – an old acquaintance of Prigozhin and a close ally of Russia – said that Putin had nothing to do with the plane crash.

“I know Putin: he is calculating, very calm, even tardy,” Lukashenko said. “I cannot imagine that Putin did it, that Putin is to blame. It’s just too rough and unprofessional a job.”