OREANDA-NEWS The fighters of the Wagner Group are not leaving Belarus, they will continue to live and work in the country, President of the Republic Alexander Lukashenko told reporters.

"Wagner" lived, "Wagner" is alive and "Wagner" will live in Belarus, no matter how much someone would like it. Prigozhin and I (the founder of a private military company — Editor's note) have built a system for how Wagner will be located here," Sputnik Belarus quotes the politician as saying.

According to him, "the core remains on the territory of the republic" — up to ten thousand people will be in the location for several days. At the same time, as Lukashenka noted, there is no need to keep all the fighters in Belarus.

"That's why they don't run anywhere. As long as we need and this unit, they will live and work with us," he said.

Earlier, a private Embraer Legacy plane flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed in the Tver region. The Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that all those on board were killed.

According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, Evgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner PMCs, was among the passengers.

Lukashenko said in August that the Wagner fighters in the republic were transferring the experience of the Belarusian army and special forces for free. In particular, in July they acted as instructors at the classes of the territorial defense units of the republic near the town of Osipovichi, Mogilev region.
In August, the Wagner Group company was registered in Belarus, its activities are designated as educational services. Dmitry Peskov, deputy Head of the presidential Administration of Russia, did not answer the question whether its state funding would continue, redirecting it to Minsk.