Wagner Group is Trojan Horse for Lukashenko, Belarusian public figure says

He said this on Espreso TV. 

"The first Trojan horse is nuclear weapons. Lukashenko was hoping that nuclear weapons would guarantee that no one would attack him and that he would be able to rule until his death," the public figure said.

However, according to Bulba, Lukashenko did not foresee that a military contingent would immediately arrive along with nuclear weapons, as per the agreement with Russia, because the Russians did not see the situation as anything other than "missiles plus soldiers." According to him, this situation surprised Belarusians.

"Any transit of power that Russia will not like and it (Russia - ed.) will be able to send in its troops and tell the international community that this is done to prevent nuclear weapons from falling into third hands," he said.

Sergei Bulba noted that the Wagner PMC is the same Trojan horse for Lukashenko.

"We don't know how it happened that Lukashenko offered to take the Wagner fighter to Belarus and Putin told him to take it, and now we have this 'happiness'. No one knows what to do with it. The population is absolutely not satisfied, both civilians and military Belarusians," Bulba said.

Also, he said, everyone understands that these are professional troops with a lot of experience, so no one likes them, but Lukashenkо is not going to ask the opinion of Belarusians.

• On the morning of July 15, a large convoy of cars and trucks with license plates of the so-called DPR and LPR was spotted in Belarus. Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service confirmed that those were mercenaries of the Wagner PMC.

• On Sunday, July 16, the Belarusian Hajun monitoring group reported that two flags - of Russia and the Wagner PMC - had been installed at the checkpoint on the border between Belarus and Russia.