Leader in Belarus; U.S. sanctions hit Wagner

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus said Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin had arrived in Belarus on Tuesday, the first indication of Prigozhin’s whereabouts since he was promised sanctuary to end a brief rebellion that threw Moscow into crisis.

The Belarusian leader assisted in negotiations between Prigozhin and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. As part of the deal, Prigozhin was allowed to go to Belarus, and a criminal case against him and his fighters was dropped. Wagner fighters were given the choice of joining him in Belarus or being incorporated into the Russian military.

Lukashenko said Tuesday that in a phone call two days earlier, as rebelling Wagner mercenaries were advancing on Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin had raised the option of simply killing the mercenary leader. Lukashenko said he had convinced Putin “not to do anything rash,” assuring him that “a bad peace is better than any war.”

Later, Lukashenko said, he spoke with Prigozhin, trying to persuade him to stand down and warning him that the Russians would “squash him like a bug.”

The Kremlin did not immediately comment on Lukashenko’s version of the conversation.

Also on Tuesday, the United States imposed sanctions on four firms and one individual connected to the Wagner Group’s Russian mercenaries or its leader.

The sanctions from Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control targeted entities in the Central African Republic, the United Arab Emirates and Russia that were connected to the Wagner Group.

The sanctions are not directly related to last week’s uprising. The U.S. has previously issued sanctions against Prigozhin and the Wagner Group multiple times, including alleging that he tried to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election.

Treasury says the sanctioned firms engaged in illicit gold deals to fund the Wagner Group so it could sustain and expand its armed forces in Ukraine and Africa.

The Wagner Group mounted a short-lived armed rebellion against the Russian government, before Prigozhin agreed to flee to neighboring Belarus, which has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian authorities said Tuesday they have closed a criminal investigation into the uprising.

French army Wagner fighters are seen in Mali in this undated photo. The U.S. imposed sanctions on a Russian executive, among others, who had worked with officials in Mali as part of Wagner.