LIVE. “Prigozhin is still in Russia” – Trump: “Putin slightly weakened after Wagner uprising” | War Ukraine and Russia

Former US President Trump, an ardent admirer of Russian President Putin, said on Thursday local time that the latter was “somewhat weakened” by the repulsed uprising. Trump also thinks it is time for the US to try to negotiate a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. “I want no more people to have to die in this ridiculous war,” Trump told Reuters by telephone.

Trump does not rule out that Kiev would have to give part of its territory to Russia to end the war – something that is currently out of the question for Ukraine.

If he were president, “alls” are “negotiable” according to Trump, although he admitted that the Ukrainians “earned a lot of credit” for their tough fight against the Russian occupiers. “I think they have a right to keep a lot of what they won and I think Russia would agree to that too. You need the right mediator or negotiator, and we don’t have that right now,” Trump said.

“I think the most important thing the US should do right now is make peace – bring Russia and Ukraine together and make peace. (…) Now is the time to do it, to get the two sides together to enforce peace.”

Trump said Putin was “damaged” by the Wagner group’s uprising last weekend. “You could say he’s still there, he’s still strong, but he’s definitely, I would say somewhat weakened, at least in the minds of a lot of people,” he said. But, if Putin were no longer in power, “you don’t know what the alternative is. It could be better, but it could be much worse,” Trump said.

Turning to the war crimes charges brought against Putin by the International Criminal Court last March, Trump said the fate of the Russian president should not be discussed until the war is over “because if you bring that topic up now, you will never make peace.”

As president, Trump developed friendly relations with Putin, who current US President Biden said Wednesday that because of invading Ukraine has “become a bit of a pariah around the world.”

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has not yet left for Belarus. So says the usually well-informed Telegram channel ‘VChK-OGPU’. A photo of Prigozhin was sent as proof, but the identity of the mercenary leader cannot be determined with certainty on the image and the date of the image could not yet be verified.

According to the channel, which has more than 700,000 followers and claims to have Russian intelligence sources, the Wagner boss must not have left Russia until July 1. “He gets that time to put his affairs in order and collect his belongings.”

The claims seem to contradict the claim of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko. He stated a few days ago that Prigozhin had already arrived in his country. However, it cannot be ruled out that the leader of the infamous mercenary army is currently traveling back and forth between the two countries.

Lithuania has tightened controls at its borders with Russia and Belarus. Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite instructed border guards on Thursday to check documents and visas of persons entering from both neighboring countries more strictly. A statement from the ministry also says that the country is ready to close its borders if the threat in the region changes.

No specific reason for the decision is given. After the uprising of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin in Russia and the planned relocation of the mercenaries to Belarus, concern has increased in Lithuania. The next NATO summit will take place in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius within two weeks.

Like its Baltic neighbors and Poland, Lithuania halted entry for many people from Russia and Belarus in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the Lithuanian Ministry of the Interior, about 1,200 Belarusian and 1,300 Russian citizens have been rejected at the border – also the external border of the European Union.

The Belgian army is sending a detachment of some 300 soldiers to Romania to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, not far from the Ukrainian border. The soldiers will be part of a French-led battle group stationed in Cincu, in the center of the country, military sources said Thursday.

A first group of about a hundred soldiers left Melsbroek for Romania on Monday. However, most of the Belgian detachment will leave next Tuesday, Defense said in a press release.

Belgium, alternating with the Netherlands, provides a supplement to the – mainly French – units of the battle group deployed in Romania. The one-year mission will be divided into three four-month periods to keep pace with the rotation of French units.

After the start of the war in Ukraine, NATO decided to double the number of battlegroups from four to eight and to create four new ones in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. They have been added to the existing battle groups in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and Poland since 2017.

Poland wants to further strengthen its eastern border with Belarus, now that it seems that the Wagner mercenary group is settling in that country. Poland wants to increase the number of soldiers there and install more “all kinds of obstacles and fortifications to protect our border in case of an attack”. Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said this after a special meeting of a government committee for security and defense.

According to the information available to Poland, up to 8,000 Wagner fighters could be sheltered in Belarus, Kaczynski said.

The EU and NATO country has a 418 kilometer long border with Belarus. In the late summer and fall of 2021, the situation along that border escalated. Thousands of people tried to enter the EU illegally. The European Union accused Belarusian ruler Aleksandr Lukashenko of having brought migrants from crisis areas to the EU’s external border in an organized manner in order to increase pressure on the west. Meanwhile, Poland built a 5.5 meter high fence at the border.

Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was given refuge in Belarus as part of an agreement – brokered by Lukashenko – that ended his rebellion.