Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed – today, Sunday – that despite the tension raised in Minsk, he controls Wagner’s forces, revealing that these forces want to go to Poland, and if it were not for his pressure, they would have gone to Warsaw.

Lukashenko said during a meeting with Russian representative Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg that members of the group “are asking to go west, to Warsaw, to Rzeszów (in Poland).”

It is noteworthy that the transfer of part of the Wagner militia to Belarus came under an agreement in the wake of an armed rebellion led by the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, against the military leadership in Moscow.

In the first summit between the two close allies since the Wagner uprising last June, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine with his Belarusian counterpart.

According to an earlier Kremlin statement, the two presidents discussed the “strategic partnership and alliance” between Moscow and Minsk during the meeting.

‘Failure’ is a counter attack

In the same context, Putin described the Ukrainian counteroffensive as a failure, saying his forces had destroyed a large number of foreign weapons in the past few hours.

For his part, the Belarusian president pointed to 26,000 soldiers lost by Ukrainian forces since the Fourth of July, warning of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) intention to link Ukraine’s west with Poland.

On Sunday, Putin announced an extension of talks that began with his Belarusian ally, a close ally of Moscow. Also, “I have changed some of my plans… we will allocate a day and a half (for these talks),” Tass news agency reported.

Minsk announced last Thursday that Wagner fighters who were forced to flee their country for Belarus are training with Belarusian special forces.

In the same context, White House National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan – before last Friday’s “Aspen” Security Forum – said that the Wagner group is not currently fighting in Ukraine.

The leader of the group appeared in a video – last Wednesday – saying that Wagner fighters would not continue to participate in the war in Ukraine and ordered them to gather their strength to participate in operations in Africa.

Wagner’s fighters played a key role in the Russian offensive on Ukraine, particularly on the frontline controlling Bagmut (eastern Ukraine), which Moscow announced had fallen last May.

On June 24, as the conflict with the Russian General Staff reached its climax, Wagner fighters occupied the army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia for hours and marched hundreds of kilometers toward Moscow, a rebellion described by the West as shaking the pillars of Russian power.

The uprising ended on the same day that its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin would go to Belarus, and his fighters offered to join the regular forces, return to civilian life, or go with him to Belarus.