Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is in St. Petersburg and his Wagner troops have remained at the camps where they had stayed before a short-lived mutiny against Moscow, the president of Belarus said Thursday.Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko helped broker a deal for Prigozhin to end his rebellion on June 24 in exchange for amnesty and security guarantees for himself and his soldiers and permission to move to Belarus.However, few details of the agreement have emerged, and the whereabouts and futures of the Wagner company's chief and his private army have remained unclear. The Kremlin has refused to comment on Prigozhin’s location or movements since the abortive revolt.After saying last week that Prigozhin was in Belarus, Lukashenko told international reporters Thursday that the mercenary leader was in St. Petersburg and Wagner's troops still were at their camps.He did not specify the location of the camps, but Prigozhin's mercenaries fought alongside Russian forces in eastern Ukraine before their revolt.Lukashenko said )his government offered Wagner, a private military contractor founded by Prigozhin, the use of Belarusian military camps but the company had not made a final decision.Asked if Prigozhin and his mercenaries were going to move to Belarus, Lukashenko answered evasively that it would depend on the decisions of the Wagner chief and the Russian government. The Belarusian leader said he doesn’t think Wagner’s presence in Belarus could lead to the destabilization of his country.Video below: Yevgeny Prigozhin: From Putin ally to adversaryDuring their short revolt, they quickly swept over the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and captured military headquarters there before marching on the Russian capital. Prigozhin described it as a “march of justice” to oust the Russian defense minister and the General Staff chief.Prigozhin claimed his troops had come within about 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) of Moscow when he ordered them to stop the advance under the deal brokered by Lukashenko.The abortive rebellion represented the biggest threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power and exposed the Kremlin's weakness, eroding Putin's authority.The Wagner fighters faced little resistance, smashing occasional roadblocks and downing at least six helicopters and a command post aircraft, killing at least 10 airmen.Lukashenko’s statement followed Russian media reports saying Prigozhin was spotted in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city. His presence was seen as part of agreements that allowed him to finalize his affairs there.Russian media outlets claimed Prigozhin retrieved cash that was confiscated during raids of his offices and a small arsenal of weapons he kept at his home in St. Petersburg.Russian online newspaper Fontanka posted videos and photos of Prigozhin's opulent mansion and some personal items, including a collection of wigs of various colors. It also published a collection of selfies that showed him posing in various wigs and foreign uniforms, an apparent reflection of Wagner's deployments to Syria and several African countries.Lukashenko said he warned Prigozhin that he and his troops would be destroyed if they failed to make a deal to end their mutiny and that Belarus would send a brigade to help protect Moscow.He argued that the rebellion could lead to major bloodshed and plunge Russia into a civil war.“It was necessary to nip it in the bud. It was very dangerous, as history shows,” Lukashenko said.

President Joe Biden on Monday emphasized that the United States and its closest allies were not involved in the rebellion by the Wagner Group against the Russian government, his first public comments since the weekend mutiny.Speaking from the White House, Biden suggested it was too early to say how the situation would unfold going forward. And he said he may speak again with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to coordinate their response after conferring in a phone call Sunday.“It’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going,” he said in the East Room. “The ultimate outcome of all this remains to be seen, but no matter what comes next I will keep making sure that our allies and our partners are closely aligned in how we are reading and responding to the situation.”Biden’s statement reflected a carefully calibrated American response to the brief uprising by the Wagner Group that amounted to the biggest threat in years to Russian President Vladimir Putin.Over the weekend, Biden remained silent on the events unfolding in Russia. He consulted with European allies by telephone on Saturday before traveling to Camp David with his national security adviser Jake Sullivan.In his remarks Monday, Biden laid out the thinking behind his approach, which some Republicans have criticized as overly cautious.“We had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO. We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system,” Biden said.Video below: NATO chief says Putin made 'big strategic mistake'American allies in Europe were in agreement with the strategy, Biden said. He spoke with the leaders of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada over the weekend, and planned to speak with the prime minister of Italy on Monday.The comments from Biden echo statements that his administration has made publicly and behind the scenes in the days since the Wagner Group left its positions in Ukraine in an apparent march toward Moscow. CNN reported that the administration quickly sent messages to the Russian government that the U.S. would not get involved in the incident.Earlier Monday, a spokesman for the National Security Council said the US was not involved in the rebellion in Russia after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russian special services are investigating whether Western intelligence services were involved in the revolt.While Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, had turned his forces around before reaching Moscow in an apparent deal with the Kremlin brokered brokered by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Biden said it’s still not clear what is happening in Russia.“We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine,” he said.Video below: Biden says US had nothing to do with Wagner rebellion in RussiaBiden continued speaking with his national security aides on Monday as they continued to process the consequences of the rebellion.The White House declined to speculate on the future of the Wagner group following this weekend’s events in Russia.“It’s just too soon to know,” National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby told reporters when asked about wider implications for Wagner’s power and ability inside Ukraine and as a fighting force.Kirby also took the opportunity to reiterate the administration’s continued support for Ukraine in its ongoing effort to defend itself against Russia’s invasion.“As we’re speaking here, right now, Ukrainian forces are still fighting for their country, they’re still trying to claw back captured territory … and they’re still inflicting casualties,” Kirby said “So, whatever occurred in Russia this past weekend did not change those facts – didn’t change the facts for us, didn’t change those facts for Ukraine, they absolutely are not going to change our continued support.”

Jurors in Pike County will begin deliberations Wednesday morning in George Wagner IV's murder trial. The jury will return to the courtroom at 8:30 a.m. to begin deliberations.Prosecutors spent the last two-and-a-half months trying to prove Wagner is guilty of murdering eight members of the Rhoden family in April 2016. It's a verdict prosecutor Andy Wilson told jurors during closing arguments they can reach even if they don't believe Wagner pulled the trigger."If you're firmly convinced that he aided, abetted, assisted his family in these crimes, participated in these crimes, then he's guilty," Wilson said during closing arguments. Defense attorney John Parker tried distancing Wagner from his brother, Jake Wagner, and mother, Angela Wagner. They both pleaded guilty in this case."Jake and Angela have destroyed this man's life," Parker said. They both testified against George Wagner."They're liars. They're con artists. They're thieves," Parker said. Parker said Jake and Angela Wagner took the stand solely for their own benefit and asked jurors to revisit their testimony."What about Jake when he was up here laughing and smiling and smirking as he's talking about these murders? He's cult-like. I think he's psychotic. He's a sick man. You can't believe what that guy says, and Angela's not a lot better" Parker said. "She sold her testimony. She's a con artist. She's a liar, and she pulled another one, because nothing she said about George can be verified. Nothing."Wilson disagreed."Their statements and their testimony show that everybody in the family was acting under the same collective intent and that everybody participated in the murders and that everybody is guilty," Wilson said.George Wagner was indicted on 22 counts including eight counts of aggravated murder.

On the fifth anniversary of the Pike County murders, a status hearing in Pike County Court turned into a surprise plea deal in the killings.Eight members of the Rhoden family were brutally murdered in what Gov. Mike DeWine called the biggest case in Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Investigation history.The youngest charged, Jake Wagner, agreed to a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.DeWine stood alongside family members of those who were killed and teared up talking with us about the emotions of this day."Five years ago, today, I was here, we met with family members in the church and I committed to them that we would find who did this and that we would bring them to justice. There was a lot of justice done today," DeWine said.On the five-year anniversary of the Pike County murders, an emotional DeWine stood outside the Pike County Courthouse.Thursday brought a victory in a case he'd held close to the heart since he was Ohio's attorney general.Wagner agreed to a deal, pleading guilty to 23 counts including eight counts of aggravated murder for the killings of eight members of the Rhoden family in 2016.They were shot execution-style at four homes."That removes the sentence of death from, as a possible sentence, that will not be possible, at that point, to impose a possible death sentence. Do you understand that?" the judge said."I do, your honor," Wagner said.Prosecutors said there was a growing custody dispute between Wagner and Hannah Rhoden over their daughter.They outlined meticulous planning by Jake Wagner, Angela Wagner, George "Billy" Wagner and George Wagner IV, including buying phone jammers and hacking Facebook accounts, forging custody documents and building silencers for guns.Jake Wagner apologized in court.His attorneys said he knows he will die in prison."Family's been through hell. While today, I'm sure was a very gratifying day, it couldn't have been an easy day. They've got to be leaving here just totally exhausted and, you know, emotionally spent. But these are tough people, these are strong people," DeWine said.Prosecutors said Jake Wagner clearly implicated the other Wagners in his statements.They also said he led them to weapons and vehicles used in the killings.In addition to a series of life sentences, Jake Wagner could also owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.Prosecutors said Jake Wagner's deal also includes an agreement that will allow Angela Wagner, George "Billy" Wagner, and George Wagner IV to avoid the death penalty, but that means Jake Wagner will have to testify in each of their trials.