© BelTA via Reuters/Nikolai Petrov
Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko
Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko
The detained men, whom the Belarusian KGB identified as members of the Wagner Group, a shady company providing mercenary services and operating out of Russia, "have told everything," Lukashenko stated in a video address to the nation.
"They've decided to use the technologies of the 'color revolution' in Belarus, but it's not going to work out," he said.
The arrest of the mercenaries is "a very dangerous and strong signal," the president said. The fact they had tickets to Istanbul on them was just a cover-up, as going to Turkey through Belarus made no sense, he insisted. "Those people - they testified - were sent to Belarus on purpose. Their order was to wait." According to Lukashenko, an attempt "to organize a massacre in central Minsk" was clearly their intention.
"Today we received information about another group [of mercenaries], deployed in the south" of the country, Lukashenko said. "So, we must run around the woods and catch them. We'll capture them all." He didn't specify from which country the militants had arrived.
The president also addressed the opposition, which has been staging massive anti-government rallies in the capital, ordering it to "stay out of the way and let me save the country."
Comment: If Lukashenko is close to the mark on his analysis, there is foul play afoot to destabilize Belarus. This kind of provocation is not known to be part of Russia's wheelhouse.
See also:
30+ Russian citizens detained in Belarus as part of 'foreign' private military company - state media