A fighter from Russia’s Wagner Mercenary Regiment trains Belarusian soldiers at a shooting range near the town of Osipovich, Belarus, July 14, 2023. This still image is taken from the handout video.
Voen TV/Belarus Ministry of Defense | via Reuters
After the Belarusian Ministry of Defense said it planned to conduct joint military exercises between mercenaries and Minsk’s own armed forces, a monitoring group reported that a large convoy carrying fighters from Wagner’s private army was spotted entering from Russia early on Saturday. Belarus.
Belarusski Hajun, an independent monitoring group that tracks the movements of the Belarusian armed forces, said at least 60 trucks, buses and other large vehicles had crossed into the eastern European country, accompanied by Belarusian police.
The group did not immediately provide photos or video of the vehicles but said they had license plates from a Russian-occupied region of eastern Ukraine, where Wagner mercenaries fought alongside Russian troops until a brief mutiny last month.
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Belaruski Hajun said the convoy was heading to a military base outside Osipovich, a small town 230 kilometers (142 miles) north of the Ukrainian border. Satellite imagery analyzed by The Associated Press this month showed what appeared to be rows of tent-like structures built inside the base between June 15 and June 30.
Belarus’ authoritarian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the time that Minsk could draw on Wagner’s experience and expertise, saying he had offered the militants an “abandoned military unit” to camp in. That same week, a leader of the anti-Lukashenko partisans told The Associated Press that a camp for mercenaries was being built near Osipovich.
The National Resistance Center of Ukraine, an agency of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense that assists partisans in the Russian-occupied zone, said late Saturday that about 240 Wagner fighter jets, 40 trucks and “significant amounts of weapons” had arrived in the Osipovich area. It cited unnamed members of the Belarusian underground anti-Lukashenko opposition as the source of the information, which could not be independently verified.
Separately, a spokesman for Ukraine’s State Border Service said on Saturday that the force had also observed “some groups” of Wagner militants crossing the border from Russia into Belarus. Spokesman Andrei Demchenko made the remarks in an interview with Ukrainian newspaper Pravda.
The Belarusian defense ministry said in a statement online late Friday that it had drawn up a “roadmap” with Wagner’s management for joint training exercises with state military personnel and private mercenaries.
Earlier on Friday, the defense ministry said Wagner fighters had begun training Belarusian soldiers. A TV channel under the ministry showed footage of fighters wearing black masks instructing soldiers on how to shoot and providing first aid.
On June 23, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder and leader of the Wagner Group, ordered his fighters to leave the Ukrainian camp and go to Moscow to demand the removal of the Russian Defense Minister and Chief of General Staff. The mutiny has shocked Russia and presented the biggest challenge to Prigorzhin’s one-time benefactor, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decades in power.
In an insurgency that lasted less than 24 hours, Wagnerian militants swept through the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, seizing military headquarters there before driving within about 200 kilometers (125 miles) of the Russian capital. Prigozhin has for months accused senior Russian military leaders of screwing up the war in Ukraine and starving his troops of ammunition.
Lukashenko then brokered a deal between Prigozhin and the Kremlin that shielded the Wagnerian leader and his men from prosecution, allowing Prigozhin to transfer to Belarus in exchange for ordering his mercenaries back to camp .
Putin said on Friday he intended to maintain Wagner as a single fighting force under an existing commander, while appearing to discredit Prigozhin. His comments in an interview with Kommersant newspaper appeared to reflect the Kremlin’s efforts to secure the loyalty of mercenaries, one of Russia’s most capable troops in Ukraine.
Lukashenko had previously allowed the Kremlin to use Belarusian territory to send troops and weapons to Ukraine. He also welcomed Russia’s continued armed presence in Belarus, including joint military camps and exercises, as well as the deployment of some Russian tactical nuclear weapons there.