Lukashenko Says Issue of Relocating Wagner Forces Not Yet Resolved

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during his meeting with foreign correspondents, in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during his meeting with foreign correspondents, in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
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Lukashenko Says Issue of Relocating Wagner Forces Not Yet Resolved

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during his meeting with foreign correspondents, in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during his meeting with foreign correspondents, in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday said the issue of relocating forces from Russia's Wagner mercenary group had not yet been resolved, Russia's TASS news agency reported.

Lukashenko, who last month brokered a deal to end an armed mutiny in Russia by the Wagner force, said Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was now no longer in Belarus but back in St. Petersburg in Russia.

Lukashenko said his offer to accommodate some of Wagner's fighters in Belarus still stood. Russia has said they can go to Belarus, sign up with its regular armed forces or demobilize.

Prigozhin took control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on June 24, seized the command center there where Russia coordinates its war in Ukraine, and sent a column of fighters towards Moscow before standing down after striking a deal with the Kremlin.

Russian state TV on Wednesday launched a fierce attack on Prigozhin and said an investigation into what had happened was still being vigorously pursued.

In a program called "60 Minutes" broadcast on Wednesday evening on the state Rossiya-1 TV channel, what was billed as exclusive footage shot during law enforcement raids of Prigozhin's office in St. Petersburg and one of his estates there was shown.



Russia Launches Scores of Drones on Ukraine, Four People Injured, Kyiv Says

A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine shows the site of a drone attack on a storage building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 12 April 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE  HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine shows the site of a drone attack on a storage building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 12 April 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE HANDOUT
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Russia Launches Scores of Drones on Ukraine, Four People Injured, Kyiv Says

A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine shows the site of a drone attack on a storage building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 12 April 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE  HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine shows the site of a drone attack on a storage building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 12 April 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE HANDOUT

Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine, injuring four people and damaging residential and commercial buildings in Kyiv and other parts of the country, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday. Ukraine's air defenses shot down 56 of 88 Russian drones, its air force said. It added that 24 drones were "lost" as the military used electronic warfare to redirect them.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitchko said that three people were injured in the capital as a result of the drone attacks, Reuters said.
Drone debris also destroyed a private house and damaged several commercial buildings, causing large fires in different parts of Kyiv, city officials said.
One more person was wounded in the city of Kharkiv in the northeast, Kharkiv's mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said.
Regional officials also said that residential and commercial buildings were damaged in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, and the military reported damage in the Odesa region in the south.