Lukashenka admitted that he needs Wagner PMC: “Toy is expensive”

“As long as we need this unit, they will live and work with us”

President Lukashenko himself put an end to the debate about the fate of the Wagner fighters in Belarus. “Wagner lived, Wagner is alive and Wagner will live in Belarus, no matter how much someone would like it,” he said during a conversation with journalists.

According to him, immediately after the tragedy near Tver, the head of the KGB of Belarus, at the personal request of Lukashenka, contacted the “Wagnerites” to find out what problems and questions they had. We agreed to keep in touch. In the meantime, according to public contacts with PMCs, “no one is leaving anywhere except for the African direction. The MTR did not surround anyone there, they did not jam communications with anyone. The guys do not believe in the death of EB, the work continues.” As if to prove it, new satellite images from the Wagner PMC camp near Osipovichi appeared on the Web, where a “taboo word” was built from tents – especially for those watching “from above”. Unless it’s a photo montage, of course. As you know, American satellites are very carefully watching what is happening in the Belarusian PMC camp, counting their tents almost under a magnifying glass…

According to Lukashenka, even with Prigozhin, a system was built on how Wagner would be located and what it would do, he said. At the same time, Old Man noted that there is a specific benefit from the “Wagnerites” in Belarus. Their combat skills were very useful in training Belarusian military personnel. And in general, according to Lukashenko, there is “iron discipline” in the unit, and local residents tell “amazing things” about them: “grandmothers are transferred across the road, they don’t take change in the store.”

However, in the existence of Wagner in Belarus there is not only the aspect of agreements with the authorities of this country and with President Lukashenko personally, but also such an important issue as the financing of PMCs. Evgeny Prigozhin personally dealt with this topic – without him, PMC specialists sharpened for military affairs will have a hard time in this matter.

According to political scientist from Belarus Aleksey Dzermant, the prospect of PMC Wagner in the republic depends on the new leadership of the military company. “A certain part will remain in Belarus, will carry out the tasks of training and transferring combat experience to Belarusian military personnel,” the expert believes. – I think that this mission is not over yet, and Belarus will remain a reserve base for Wagner, but, apparently, not all active fighters will remain with us. As for the fate of the fighters who want to perform other tasks, this will, of course, be decided by the leadership of the PMC. There are tasks in Africa, and someone will want to return to the NVO zone already in the format of interaction with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Right now, we cannot say who and where, in what quantity, but I have outlined the options. All three options can also be implemented simultaneously.”

According to political scientist Andrei Suzdaltsev, Lukashenka is interested in Wagner. “Of course, he would like to have a mercenary army, which, in which case, would stand up for Belarus. But the problem is different: Wagner is an expensive toy. An employee of the PMC receives a salary equal to the salary of the Belarusian minister. Naturally, the question arises who will pay for all this. Now there are 2-3 thousand mercenaries left in Belarus, without heavy weapons. I think that one part will return to Russia, and the other part will be signed to work in Africa. I think that by October there will be no Wagner left in Belarus at all.”