A large convoy carrying fighters from the Wagner private army was spotted entering Belarus from Russia early Saturday, a monitoring group reported after the country’s Defense Ministry said it planned for the mercenaries and Minsk’s own armed forces to conduct joint military drills, Ednews reports citing ap.news.
The independent monitoring group Belaruski Hajun, which tracks the movements of armed forces in Belarus, said that at least 60 trucks, buses and other large vehicles crossed into the Eastern European country accompanied by Belarusian police.
The group didn’t immediately provide photos or videos of the vehicles but said they had license plates from Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine, where Wagner mercenaries fought alongside Russian troops until a short-lived mutiny last month.
The convoy headed toward a military base outside Osipovichi, a town 230 kilometers (142 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, Belaruski Hajun said. Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press this month showed rows of tent-like structures that appeared to have been built at the base between June 15 and June 30.
Ukraine’s Center for National Resistance, an arm of the Ukrainian defense ministry that assists guerrilla groups in Russia-occupied territory, said later Saturday that about 240 Wagner fighters, 40 trucks and “a large amount of weapons” had arrived in the Osipovichi area. It cited unspecified members of Belarus’ underground anti-Lukashenko opposition as the source of the information, which couldn’t be independently verified.
Separately, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said Saturday that the force also had observed “some groups” of Wagner fighters crossing from Russia into Belarus. The spokesperson, Andriy Demchenko, made the remarks in an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry said in an online statement late Friday that it had developed a “road map” with Wagner’s management for joint training exercises drills by the nation’s military personnel and the private mercenaries.
Earlier Friday, the Defense Ministry said that Wagner fighters had begun training Belarusian soldiers. A television channel affiliated with the ministry showed footage of fighters in black masks instructing soldiers on how to shoot and provide first aid.
