But that is up in the air at the moment so the mystery continues. i spoke earlier to the nation s main opposition leader sviatlana tsikhanouskaya about lukashenko and what comes next for belarus. thank you forjoining us here on bbc. the whereabouts of the wagner leader are currently unknown. lukashenko said on thursday he is in russia. what do you think is going on here? lukashenko does not control the situation at all and does not know if yevgeny prigozhin is in saint petersburg or belarus, if the camp that has been built for the wagner group orfor somebody else. it means he doesn t oppose the possible deployment of nuclear weapons. it means he has to consult with his department on all questions. you mention nuclear weapons and vladimir putin claims he has moved a batch of nuclear
That there are a lot of new tents which are here, which we are told have been put up in the last few weeks. but we have also been told that these tents, which are empty, have nothing to do with wagner or getting ready for wagner. there are some territorial defence exercises coming up in belarus in september so forward planning by the defence ministry here. 0k. here we are inside one of the tents and it all looks and smells very new. you can smell the wood. it s still so unclear what is happening here. are wagner coming to belarus, are they not coming? are they here, are they not here? from what lukashenko was saying yesterday when we met him in minsk, the question about wagner coming to belarus, relocating here has not been resolved, even though that was part of the deal done between wagner and the kremlin. yevgeny prigozhin and fighters who wanted to were to relocate here.
come on in, the major general says. no wagnerfighters here not yet. we re told these are belarusian soldiers, off shift. there s something a bit strange about this. belarus says that this camp could be for wagner if they want to come here, but we re told that all these new tents that have appeared in the last couple of weeks have got nothing to do with getting ready for wagner, they re for a territorial defence exercise. ..in september. so forward planning by the belarusians. yesterday, mr lukashenko told us that there are dozens of ex soviet military bases in his country that could accommodate wagner, but he admitted the group s expected move to belarus wasn t a done deal. if the russian mercenaries do move in, what will the belarusian army make of it? we don t see any reason for danger,
But yesterday, belarus leader alexander lukashenko said prigozhin was in russia after all. last week, bbc verify revealed these satellite images that appeared to show activity at a disused military base around 64 miles from the belarusian capital. the area has been reported in russian media as a place that could house wagner fighters. 0ur russia editor steve rosenberg has visited that site ? and he s sent this report. we re looking for answers. where is wagner? where s their chief, yevgeny prigozhin? no one seems to know. but could the russian mercenaries end up here, an abandoned base in belarus? the country s leader, alexander lukashenko, is offering to host wagner fighters on this site. we re among a group of journalists allowed infora tour. there s plenty of space here for a private army. lots of tents that have only recently been put up enough for 5,000 people.
Unused base, trying to house wagner s mercenaries. reporter: this is the closest we have ever come to a wagner camp, not in russia or ukrainian front lines, but standing empty for now, this belarus. this is where we thought that soldiers invited to belarus could be housed, in a vast tent city that s supposedly unused site in tents like this set up to house a couple dozen fighters at any time. for the most part they re empty at the moment. that s because the plan to invite wagner and its leader over here now appears to be on hold. recent satellite images showed out quickly the camp was transformed, ready to house large numbers of troops.