Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is still in Russia, Belarus’s president said on Thursday.
Prigozhin had previously struck a deal with Kremlin to go into exile in Belarus following his failed insurrection last month.
“As far as Prigozhin is concerned, he is in Saint Petersburg … He is not in Belarus,” Alexander Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko added that fighters from Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group have also not moved to Belarus yet, despite an offer from the Kremlin for those who took part in the failed mutiny to do so.
“At the moment the question of their transfer and set-up has not been decided,” Lukashenko said.
“I am absolutely not worried or concerned that we will host a certain number of these fighters here,” he added.
“If we need to activate these units, we will activate them immediately and their experience will be very much appreciated.”
Prigozhin launched a mutiny against Russia’s military leadership on June 23 and sent an armed column towards Moscow in the biggest challenge yet to President Vladimir Putin’s leadership.
Some 24 hours later, the Kremlin said the crisis had been resolved thanks to mediation from Lukashenko, with Prigozhin due to depart for Belarus.
It came as Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu praised his army’s “loyalty” during the armed uprising last month by the Wagner military group.
“The plans primarily failed because the personnel of the Armed Forces showed loyalty to their oath and military duty,” he said in his first public comments since the insurrection.
He also said Russian military personnel serving in Ukraine had “courageously and selflessly continued to solve the tasks assigned to them,” according to the comments carried by news agencies.
Prigozhin was a firebrand critic of Shoigu prior to his effort to oust the defence Minister and chief of staff Valery Gerasimov.
State television broadcasted images of Shoigu inspecting Russian troops in Ukraine just days after the armed mutiny late last month, footage observers said was filmed prior to the mutiny.
He later appeared in a meeting with Vladimir Putin, without making any public statements.
Several senior officials have not appeared in public since the insurrection including Gerasimov and general Sergei Surovikin, fuelling rumours of their possible ouster.