NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday said that NATO is closely following the movement of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force as well as their boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

“On Prigozhin, well, what we can say is that we monitor closely where the Wagner soldiers are moving around, and also where he (Prigozhin) is moving,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels.

“I will not go into the details, but we have seen some preparations for hosting large groups of Wagner soldiers in Belarus. So far we haven’t seen so many of them going to Belarus,” he added.

Stoltenberg made his comments amid reports that Prigozhin was back in Russia and had not taken up the offer of exile in Belarus, which was agreed after Wagner forces began and ended a 24-hour mutiny against the Russian military leadership on June 24.