Lukashenko addresses journalists for first time since Wagner Group rebellion

Speaking to journalists for the first time since Wagner Group’s armed rebellion in Russia on June 24, Alexander Lukashenko said that all of Belarus’s armed forces were brought to “full combat readiness” during the crisis.

“Nobody said a word against it, not even in those sniveling Telegram channels,” said the Belarusian dictator. “In half a day, the army and all of the armed forces, including the police and special forces, were brought to full combat readiness.”

He also called on the public not to “make a hero out of” himself, Vladimir Putin, or Yevgeny Prigozhin. “[We’re not heroes] because we failed to see the situation, and then we thought it would blow over, but it didn’t blow over,” said Lukashenko. “And two people who had fought on the front clashed. There are no heroes in this situation.”

Additionally, he commented on the actions of the Belarusian opposition during the Wagner Group rebellion. “They even managed to publish more public appeals and plans,” he told journalists, adding that the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment, a unit of Belarusian soldiers fighting for Ukraine, tried to return to Belarus after hearing it was on the “verge of revolution.”