This Tuesday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko spoke about the uprising waged by the Wagner group against his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last Friday, which reached its peak on Friday.

Speaking at a military ceremony, Lukashenko said the “threat of a new world conflict has never been closer” than today and warned that “if Russia collapses”, everyone will die.

“If Russia collapses, we will be under the rubble and we will all die,” he said.

Vladimir Putin says the West and Ukraine wanted the Russians to ‘kill’ each other

He also assured that they are trying to “agitate” the region and “disorient” the people to impose new rules and a new world order.

“Our countries and our peoples will no longer be in that order,” he added.

The president indicated that the West will try to take advantage of the situation if chaos ensues in Russia and declined to give details of his negotiation as a go-between to end the insurgency.

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Monday that Wagner’s mercenaries who took part in the uprising could join the Russian regular army or other security forces, return home or go into exile in Belarus.

Lukashenko also stated that Prigozhin would arrive in Belarus this Tuesday.

“The security guarantees passed yesterday [el presidente ruso, Vladimir Putin]. I see that Prigozhin is already traveling by plane. Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today,” Lukashenko declared during a meeting with Belarusian officials, according to state media, without specifying whether Wagner’s boss was already in the country or about to arrive.

What is the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary corps in Ukraine (and how it works)

Similarly, the president suggested that Wagner members going into exile in their countries could help with their experience in offensive power, combat techniques and weapons handling.

“If your commanders come to help us… It’s experience. They were attack groups in the vanguard. They will tell us what is important now. Because they’ve been through all this (…) About tactics, weapons, how to move forward and how to defend yourself. It is something that is priceless. This is what we should take from the Wagnerites,” he said, according to the official agency BELTA.

In a meeting with Belarus Defense Minister Victor Khrenin, he noted that now there is a lot of talk about the mutiny of Russian mercenaries, but “people don’t understand that we have a practical approach to it”.

“There’s no reason to be afraid of them,” he said, pointing out that “we’re always on the lookout.”

Wagner mercenary group stops its advance on Moscow after Alexander Lukashenko’s mediation

According to the Belarusian president, he learned about the uprising early on Saturday and almost immediately spoke with Putin, who informed him about the situation “in the most detailed way”.

“The most dangerous thing, as I understood, was not the situation at the time, but how it could develop and its consequences (…) and I also understood that the cruel decision was made to crush them. I suggested to Putin not to rush,” Lukashenko said.

The Belarusian president added that Putin did not have high hopes for the possibility of a dialogue with Prigozhin, as Wagner’s boss “did not pick up the phone and did not want to speak to anyone”.

After receiving Prigozhin’s phone number from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Lukashenko contacted him and noted that he was “very upset”: “the first round of talks lasted 30 minutes, exclusively swearing. There were ten times more tacos than normal lexicon,” he recalls.

Lukashenko noted that Wagner’s fighters had “just emerged from the front lines in Ukraine, where they saw the deaths of thousands of their own”.

“The guys were very offended, especially the commanders. And as I understood, they had a lot of influence on Prigozhin.

“Yes, he is such, you know, a heroic man, but he was put under great pressure and influence from those who led the robbers and saw all those dead. And in those circumstances (…) in a quasi-rabid state, I talked to him,” he said.

According to the Belarusian president, Prigozhin insisted on going to Moscow, where Lukashenko assured him that no one would hand him over to the Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, or the chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov, against whom Wagner launched his rebellion navy.

“You know Putin as well as I do,” Lukashenko told Wagner’s boss, pointing out that even if the mercenaries arrived in Moscow, the Kremlin chief would never agree to receive him “under these circumstances.”

“They will crush you like an insect along the way, even though the Russian army is busy at the front. Think about that,” warned Lukashenko, assuring Prigozhin that he was ready to send a White Russian brigade “to defend Moscow, as in 1941,” referring to World War II.