This Wednesday, a video appeared via pro-Wagner Telegram groups in which the group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, sends greetings to his members.

After the uprising the group led in Russia last June, it is Prigozhin’s first appearance after taking refuge in Belarus.

According to CNN, the video welcomes the new destination found and calls to fight with dignity.

The head of the Wagner Group had been treated for stomach cancer and felt he had nothing to lose by rebelling against Putin.

“The decision has been made that we are here, in Belarus, for a while,” says a voice attributed to Prigozhin in a video broadcast by the Telegram channel Razgruzka Wagnera, close to the group of mercenaries.

During that time, added Prigozhin, who also distributed the video on his own Telegram channel, Wagner will make the Belarusian army “second in the world.”

“And if it is necessary and necessary, we will defend him,” he added. After that, the mercenary group will increase its level of preparation and take a “new path” towards Africa, he said.

At the same time, he did not rule out the possibility that at some point Wagner would have to return to Ukraine, where the war continues because of the Russian invasion.

“Perhaps we will go back to the special military campaign the moment we are sure that they will force us to disgrace ourselves and our experience,” he said.

It has not been possible to confirm that Prigozhin appears in the video.