President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus said that the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny V. Prigozhin had arrived in Belarus on Tuesday, the state news agency reported, the first indication of Mr. Prigozhin’s whereabouts since he was promised sanctuary to end a brief rebellion that threw Moscow into crisis.
The Belarusian leader also spoke in depth for the first time about what he said was his role in the negotiations between Mr. Prigozhin and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and he addressed what he called rumors about the role that the mercenary group might play in Belarus.
As part of the deal, Mr. Prigozhin was allowed to go to Belarus and a criminal case against him and his fighters was dropped. Wagner fighters were given the choice of joining him in Belarus or being incorporated into the Russian military.
It was unclear on Tuesday whether any Wagner fighters had arrived in the country. Mr. Lukashenko suggested that it might take some time for the Wagner members who chose not to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense to travel to Belarus. He also said he told his defense minister to explore the idea of bringing some of them into the Belarusian Army.
Mr. Lukashenko said that he offered Wagner group members an “abandoned” military base in the country, but claimed that no camps were being built especially for the mercenary fighters. Earlier Tuesday, Latvia and Lithuania, which both border Belarus, called on NATO to strengthen its eastern borders because of what they said was the possible creation of Wagner bases.
Mr. Lukashenko, a longtime dictator who is viewed as the leader of a Russian vassal state, has presented himself as a central figure in the drama, a savvy mediator and a loyal ally of Mr. Putin. His comments could not be independently confirmed.
The Belarusian leader said that he spoke with Mr. Putin at 10:10 a.m. on Saturday after Wagner forces had seized the Southern Military Command in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Mr. Lukashenko said he discussed with Mr. Putin the possibility of killing the Wagner chief and that he had urged Mr. Putin not to rush his response, assuring him that “a bad peace is better than any war.”
He said he then phoned Col. Gen. Yunus-bek Yevkurov, who was on the grounds of the Southern Military Command, and asked him to hand the phone to Mr. Prigozhin.
“The first round, 30 minutes, was spoken in swear language,” he said. “It was exceptional. There were 10 times more swear words — I later analyzed — than normal vocabulary.” During his conversations, Mr. Lukashenko said he told Mr. Prigozhin that the Russian president would “squash him like a bug.”
Mr. Lukashenko said that Mr. Prigozhin and his comrades were in a “half-mad state” after witnessing so much death on the front line. Mr. Prigozhin has said the protest was aimed at a move by the Ministry of Defense to force his mercenaries to sign contracts with the government. Mr. Lukashenko did not go into detail on the specific negotiations.
“As Prigozhin told me yesterday, some of them will sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense,” Mr. Lukashenko said. “But, he says, the most important thing is that my guys have not been at home for half a year — for a year even. And it was important for me to agree with Putin that he would not touch them.”
Mr. Lukashenko denied speculation that Wagner troops would be involved in guarding Russian tactical nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus. He also said that there would be no Wagner recruitment centers opening in Belarus any time soon but expressed enthusiasm about having Wagner fighters — who have become known for brutal tactics — train Belarus’ armed forces.
“Now there is a lot of talk and chatter: ‘Wagner, Wagner, Wagner’,” Mr. Lukashenko said during a working meeting with Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin. “They’ll tell you about weapons: what worked well, what didn’t. And tactics, and weapons, and how to attack, how to defend. This is priceless. This is what we need to take from the Wagnerites.”