Yevgeny Prigozhin Surfaces in Belarus in Rousing Address to Wagner Troops on Video

Wagner Group tycoon Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to surface for the first time since his aborted mutiny against Russia last month in a video that showed him welcoming mercenary troops to Belarus.

In an undated and unverified video posted to the Prigozhin friendly Telegram channels Wagner Unloading and Wagner Orchestra, the private army’s founder praises his troops and says they "did a lot for Russia," according to a translation by an independent Russian news outlet.

Prigozhin and fighters who remained loyal to him agreed to go into exile in Belarus under the terms of a deal that ended the June 23-24 Wagner uprising.

At least three small convoys of Wagner forces reportedly have entered Belarus in the past week without armor or heavy weapons. 

To the cheers of the fighters during a nighttime address, Prigozhin said the Wagner army would rise again to its past, violent glory, including a bigger presence in Africa.

He signaled that Wagner was done fighting in Ukraine for now, and put the spotlight on the man for whom the Wagner Group is named.

“Now, what is happening at the front is a shame in which we do not need to participate,” he told the troops, adding they should “wait for the moment when we can prove ourselves in full.”

The formerly trusted henchman of Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wagner would train Belarusian troops into "the second army of the world, and if necessary, we will stand up for them." 

He also crudely warned the fighters to be on their best behavior with local women. “They say the local girls in the shops whisper with lust that the Wagners have arrived,” Prigozhin said.

“But be careful not to offend any of them.”

Prigozhin then drew the crowd's attention to Dmitry Utkin, a former special forces commander who goes by the call-sign "Wagner," and for whom the mercenary army was named

“Many thanks to everyone for the work done," Utkin told the cheering soldiers. "Thanks to this work, the name of PMC Wagner thundered throughout the world. This is not the end, this is only the beginning of the biggest work in the world, which will be carried out very soon."

"Welcome to hell."

Prigozin promised the troops “a new path, to Africa,” adding that their days in Ukraine might not be over. “And perhaps we will return...at the moment when we are sure that we will not be forced to shame ourselves and our experience.”

On Thursday, a Wagner spokesman said the company was sending additional military trainers to the Central African Republic, noting that the deal was brokered without the participation of Russia's defense ministry.

A Belarusian Telegram channel suggested the Prigozhin video was shot in a camp near Osipovichi, in the  country’s Mogilev region. A local monitoring group estimated the number of Wagner fighters in the country at between 2,000 and 2,500.