Photo of Wagner Chief in underwear in Wagner Group camp may be real – media

The photo of Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner Group, in a camp similar to those built for the Wagnerites in Belarus may be real, as at this time the crew of Prigozhin flew to Belarus.

Source: Belaruski Haijun, an independent Belarusian military monitoring media outlet

Details: In the morning, the pro-Russia Telegram channels posted a photo of a man who looked like Yevgeny Prigozhin sitting in his underwear on a bed in a tent.

Belaruski Haijun reports that the channel that published this photo first at 11:52 stated that the photo appeared in one of the chats and that "according to the metadata of the original photo, the date the photo was taken is 12 June at 07:24 in the morning". However, later the post was edited, and June was changed to July.

Quote: "Let’s assume that this photo was indeed taken on 12 July at 07:24, and therefore Yevgeny Prigozhin was indeed in a camp near Osipovichi; more specifically, he spent a night there.

Look, on 11 July we reported that the crew of Yevgeny Prigozhin came to Belarus for the third time. It landed at the Machulishchy airbase at 19:40. Then, at 20:05, two helicopters, Mi-24 and Mi-8, of the Air Forces of Belarus took off from the Machulishchy airbase to the district of Osipovichi.

On the next day, 12 July, the helicopters Mi-24 and Mi-8 flew to the district of Osipovichi from Machulishchy again. They returned to Machulishchy at 14:27 and 14:30. The main thing is that in 2 hours and 20 minutes from Machulishchy to Russia, specifically to St Petersburg, the crew of Prigozhin flew."

More details: Thus, if the photo was taken on 12 July at 07:24, it is quite likely that Prigozhin came to Machulishchy on 11 July in the evening, was taken to a campground in the village of Tsil by helicopter, spent the night there, and took off from Machulishchy the next day.

In the previous photos from the campground, the floor was also covered with chipboard, the tents are white, and the windows are square with cross-like jumpers.

Background:

• Vyorstka, a Russian media outlet, reported that the camps were being set up in Belarus to lodge the mercenaries of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) after the agreements with Alexander Lukashenko, self-proclaimed President of Belarus, who negotiated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner PMC.
• The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine refuted this information. The service stressed that the intelligence is thoroughly tracking the situation in the country, which is an accomplice of Russia, the aggressor state.
• Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, claimed that they do not build camps for the Wagner PMC but will "help with accommodation" if necessary.
• "We are not building any camps yet. But if they want to (I understand they are looking at certain areas), we will accommodate them. Put up tents, if you like. But for now, they are in Luhansk in their camps. And as Prigozhin, who called me yesterday, told me, somebody is going to sign a contract with [Russia's Defence Minister Sergei] Shoigu at the Defence Ministry.
• We offered them one of the abandoned camps. They are welcome – the fence is there, and everything is in place. Put up your tents. We will help them as much as we can until they decide what to get up to," Lukashenko claimed.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is confident that the mercenaries from the Wagner PMC will not attack Ukraine from Belarus.

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