'If Russia Collapses, We Will All Remain Under Rubble': Lukashenko on Wagner Mutiny

The results of any collapse of Russia would be catastrophic and affect everyone with no exclusions, stressed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during his address to the nation on Tuesday.

"My position is: if Russia collapses, we will remain under the rubble, we will all die," the president is quoted as saying.

The president admitted that it was painful for him to witness the events that took place recently because he was worried about the "united Motherland" and its future.

"To be honest, it was painful to observe the events that occurred in the south of Russia. Not only for me. Many of our citizens took them to heart. Because our Motherland is one," Lukashenko said.

Lukashenko highlighted the importance of being united in the face of common challenges and expressing devotion to the Motherland.

"And our Motherland from Brest to Vladivostok is our land, freedom and our peoples who live here. History remembers: Belarusians know how to defend their land. We have been and will be stronger than any challenges,” the Belarusian leader stressed.

He underlined that the West would have definitely taken advantage of the situation in the Russian Federation for their own purposes if the mutiny of the Wagner private military company had succeeded.

The president stated that he gave orders to bring the national army to full combat readiness against the backdrop of events in Russia. Moreover, he underlined that Belarus had been ready to send security forces to the neighboring nation.

"I gave all orders to bring the army to full combat readiness," he said, adding: "The armed forces [...] Not only the armed forces, the police, special forces, were put on full alert. A whole brigade was ready to be moved to Russia if necessary."

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Talking about situation in his country, he noted that the collective West is once again trying to "blow up" the nation by disorienting people. The same applies to the entire Eastern European region, he added. In particular, he referred to the Belarusian opposition abroad, who, according to Lukashenko, showed readiness to implement an armed rebellion in the county in light of the events in Russia.

According to Lukashenko, the current generation is undergoing its test of strength as the threat from the West hangs over Belarus. However, Minsk has the technical capabilities to deal with it, he pointed out.

"We were given the mission to save the peace, gained through the sacrifice of millions of heroes, our fathers and grandfathers. This means only one thing – we must be stronger than the threat that again hangs over our land as a shadow. And again from the West. As you can see, history repeats itself. Speaking of strength, the last thing I think about is technical capabilities. They exist. And we are well aware of this," he said.

As for the attempted mutiny, Belarusian President Lukashenko urged to be more attentive to such structures as the Wagner PMC and to respond to their requests in a timely manner, adding that they also need to be guided and supported. According to the president, what happened in Russia has been "a great lesson."

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, President Putin highly values the Belarusian leader's efforts to resolve the situation during the attempted armed mutiny by Prigozhin. However, Lukashenko stated that no one, including himself, should be made hero in the situation around the armed mutiny.

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The Wagner Group paramilitary organization seized a Russian army headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don on Friday night. Prior to that, Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the Russian Defense Ministry of attacking the military group's field camps. The Russian Defense Ministry rejected the accusation, while the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a criminal case against Prigozhin for organizing an armed mutiny. Prigozhin said that the Wagner Group forces were heading to the Russian capital, Moscow.

On Saturday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that he had been involved in negotiations with Prigozhin, as agreed with Putin, and they had reached an agreement to de-escalate the situation. Prigozhin followed up by saying that the Wagner Group would retreat to base. According to Peskov, the charges against Prigozhin would be dropped (which was later implemented by FSB) and he would be sent to Belarus.