The leader of the Wagner paramilitary group, who staged a brief uprising against Russian President Vladimir Putin, has arrived in Belarus, state media said on Tuesday.
The report ended speculation about what happened to Yevgeny Prigozhin after Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko negotiated a truce in what appeared to be a coup attempt Saturday.
Lukashenko stepped in on behalf of Putin, who earlier called the Wagner march toward Moscow “treason.”
Lukashenko said that he offered Wagner group members and Prigozhin an “abandoned” military base in Belarus.
“As Prigozhin told me yesterday, some of them will sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense,” Lukashenko was quoted as saying by Belarus’ state media. “But, he says, the most important thing is that my guys have not been at home for half a year — for a year even. And it was important for me to agree with Putin that he would not touch them.”
Putin on Tuesday praised Russian security forces, thanking the military for having “essentially stopped a civil war,” Russian state media reported.
British security forces told a U.K. newspaper that Wagner pulled back when the Kremlin threatened members of their family. The Telegraph also reported the Wagner troop count was around 8,500, not 25,000.
Putin said the militia group was paid more than $1 billion for their services, including the war in Ukraine, the newspaper reported.
