Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated that calls for for the withdrawal of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group from Belarus had been “groundless and stupid”, Belarusian state information company BELTA reported on Thursday.

Wagner, whose chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a aircraft crash in Russia final week, relocated a few of its fighters to Belarus beneath a deal brokered by Lukashenko after the mercenary military launched a failed mutiny geared toward ousting Prigozhin’s rivals from the Russian Defence Ministry in June.