Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group military company, was listed as a passenger on a private jet which crashed on Wednesday evening north of Moscow with no survivors. (Prigozhin Press Service via AP/File)
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday said he warned Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin twice to keep an eye out for threats to his life.
Speaking to Belta, Belarus-owned news agency, Lukashenko said that the first time he warned was soon after the Wagner’s forces foiled a bid to march on Moscow to mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The first time was when I phoned him and negotiations (were taking) place while they were marching on Moscow,” Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko told Belta that he told Putin’s former caterer: “Yevgeny, do you understand that you will doom your people and will perish yourself?”
Prigozhin reportedly said: “I will die then, damn it!”
Lukashenko said the second time he warned Prigozhin during a meeting between him, Prigozhin and Dmitriy Utkin, a long-term lieutenant of Prigozhin.
Russian state media outlets this week showed footage of a private plane crashing into a field northwest of Moscow while en route to St. Petersburg. The plane was purportedly carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose private army has been instrumental in the ongoing 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war.
Tensions rise as Belarusian helicopters reportedly cross into Polish airspace during a training exercise.
Belarus military helicopters stray into Polish airspace during training (Image: Getty)
Poland’s Ministry of Defence has reported that two Belarusian military helicopters violated Polish airspace during a training exercise.
In response to the incursion Mariusz Błaszczak, the Minister of Defence has ordered the number of soldiers on the border to be increased.
The Belarusian side had previously informed Poland about the training drills, the Polish Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
The border crossing reportedly took place at a very low altitude, making it difficult to detect by radar systems.
The Polish MoD noted: “Therefore, in the morning announcement, the Operational Command of the Armed Forces Branches informed that the Polish radar systems did not record any violation of Polish airspace.
“NATO has been informed of the incident.”
Belarusian helicopters cross into Polish airspace during training (Image: Getty)
A statement released by the Polish MoD on Tuesday (August 1) said: “After the commanders and service chiefs presented conclusions from the analysis of the situation, it was established that today, August 1, 2023, there was a violation of Polish airspace by two Belarusian helicopters that were training near the border.
Russian president says his country will retaliate against any attack on its ally with all means at its disposal as Poland denies having any territorial ambitions in Belarus.
Wagner Group fighters are training Belarusian special forces at the Brestsky military ground in Belarus [File: Handout by the Belarusian Defence Ministry/ Telegram/@modmilby/AFP]Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Poland of having territorial ambitions in the former Soviet Union and said any aggression against its neighbour and ally Belarus would be considered an attack on Russia itself.
In televised remarks on Friday, Putin warned that Moscow would use any means at its disposal to protect Belarus, which forms a loose Union State with Russia, against possible attacks.
Putin said there were reports of plans for a Polish-Lithuanian unit to be used for operations in western Ukraine – parts of which in the past belonged to Poland – and ultimately to occupy territory there.
“But as far as Belarus is concerned, it is part of the Union State. Unleashing aggression against Belarus will mean aggression against the Russian Federation,” Putin said at a meeting of the Kremlin’s Security Council.
“We will respond to this with all the means at our disposal.”
“It is well known that they also dream of the Belarusian lands,” he said, also without providing any evidence.
‘Pathetic bore from the Kremlin’
Poland, a NATO member and one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies in its fight against Russia’s invasion, denied any territorial ambitions in Ukraine or Belarus.
“The pathetic bore from the Kremlin is once again repeating lies about Poland and also trying to falsify the truth about the war against Ukraine,” Poland’s deputy minister coordinator of special services, Stanislaw Zaryn, told the state-owned PAP news agency.
“Vladimir Putin is also using historical revisionism again to spread false accusations against Poland.”
In his remarks, Putin argued Poland’s western territories were a “gift” from former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
“It was thanks to the Soviet Union, thanks to steps taken by Stalin, that Poland got substantial territories in the West – German land. This is a fact,” Putin said. “Western Polish territories are Stalin’s gift to Poland. Have our friends in Warsaw forgotten about it? We’ll give them a reminder.”
Putin’s comments are a message that “Poland has to be grateful to the Soviet Union, to Russia, and instead they are becoming more of an enemy to Russia,” said Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at the New School and great-granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
“Also this is a message to the Ukrainians: ‘Please remember that for many years Ukraine and Poland were not great friends, and so now you’re being duped.’ So this is a multilayered propaganda message on the Kremlin’s part,” she told Al Jazeera from Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is stationing nuclear weapons in Belarus for the first time in decades.
The Russian leader announced the move to place tactical nuclear weapons in the neighboring Eastern European country on Saturday in response to the United Kingdom providing Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium, according to the Associated Press. Putin has falsely accused the U.K. of providing Ukraine weapons “with a nuclear opponent.”
The decision to place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus comes more than a year after Putin announced his invasion of Ukraine, which has previously sparked concern over the potential for escalation into a wider conflict, including the use of nuclear weapons.
“I would like to highlight that, without breaking our international commitments on not spreading nuclear weapons, we already helped our Belarus colleagues to re-equip their planes. Planes of Belarus Air Forces. Ten planes are ready for using this type of weapon,” Putin said during a broadcast on Saturday. “We already transferred to Belarus our well known and very effective Iskander complex, and it can also be a carrier.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen in Moscow on March 21. Putin on Saturday announced that he positioned nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus. CONTRIBUTOR/GETTY IMAGES
As Putin’s war has faced widespread condemnation, Belarus has emerged as a key ally for Russia. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has publicly supported Putin, even allowing Russian troops to enter Ukraine from the Belarus-Ukraine border, providing closer access to the capital city of Kyiv.
Putin said that Lukashenko has previously suggested placing nuclear weapons in Belarus, while also accusing the United States of “doing this” for decades, according to Reuters on Saturday.
“They [the U.S.] have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries,” the Russian leader added.
The move sparked condemnation from anti-nuclear advocates, who have long criticized Russia’s stance on nuclear weapons.
“As long as President Putin has nuclear weapons, Europe cannot be safe. He justifies this dangerous escalation by citing decades of NATO nuclear sharing,” Daniel Hoegsta, the interim executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), said in a statement to Newsweek on Saturday.
