Fighters from the Wagner group have arrived in Belarus from Russia, Ukrainian and Polish officers mentioned on Saturday, a day after Minsk mentioned the mercenaries have been coaching the nation’s troopers southeast of the capital.
“Wagner is in Belarus,” Andriy Demchenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian border company, mentioned in a press release on the Telegram messaging app. He mentioned the motion of “separate teams” from Russia had been noticed in Belarus.
Some Wagner fighters have been in Belarus since no less than Tuesday, two sources near the fighters advised Reuters.
The Belarusian defence ministry launched a video on Friday, displaying what it mentioned have been Wagner fighters instructing Belarusian troopers at a army vary close to the city of Osipovichi.
Wagner’s transfer to Belarus was a part of a deal that ended the group’s mutiny try in June – once they took management of a Russian army headquarters, marched on Moscow and threatened to tip Russia into civil conflict – President Vladimir Putin mentioned.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has not been seen in public since he left the southern Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don late on June 24.
Poland’s deputy minister coordinator of particular companies, Stanislaw Zaryn, mentioned Warsaw additionally has affirmation of Wagner fighters’ presence in Belarus.
“There could also be a number of hundred of them in the mean time,” Zaryn mentioned on Twitter.
Poland mentioned this month it was bolstering its border with Belarus to deal with any potential threats.
Whereas not sending his personal troops to Ukraine, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko allowed Moscow to make use of Belarusian territory to launch its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022 and has since let his nation be used as a base for Russian nuclear weapons.
The Belarusian Hajun challenge, which displays army exercise within the nation and which is seen as an extremist formation by Belarusian authorities, mentioned a big column of no less than 60 autos entered Belarus in a single day Friday from Russia.
It mentioned the autos, together with vehicles, pickups, vans and buses, had licence plates of the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk folks’s republics in what’s internationally recognised as jap Ukraine. In a transfer extensively condemned as unlawful, Moscow moved final yr to annex the republics, which have been Russian proxies since 2014.
Hajun mentioned it appeared {that a} Wagner column was headed to Tsel in central Belarus, the place overseas reporters have been final week proven a camp with a whole lot of empty tents.
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the Belarusian Hajun report. There was no instant remark from Russia or Belarus on the reviews.
