MOSCOW, Jul 20 (Reuters) – Mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group have begun training Belarusian special forces at a military site a few kilometers from the border with NATO member Poland, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
chief wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin showed himself in a video on Wednesday welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now, but ordering them to gather their force to Africa while training the Belarusian army.
“The armed forces of Belarus continue joint training with the fighters of the Wagner PMC (Private Military Company),” the Belarusian Defense Ministry said.
“During the week, the units of the special operations forces together with the representatives of the Company will work on combat training tasks at the Brest military range.”
The range is only 3 miles (5 km) east of the Polish border.
Minsk posted photos of masked Wagner instructors, their faces covered in accordance with the mercenary group’s rules, training Belarusian soldiers with armored vehicles and what appear to be drone controls.
Poland, a former member of the Warsaw Pact that has been a full member of the US-led military alliance since 1999, began to move more than 1,000 soldiers to the east of the country earlier this month amid growing concerns that Wagner fighters in Belarus could increase tension on its border.
Poland’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that the country’s borders were secure and that it was ready for “various scenarios as the situation develops.”
When asked about Poland’s move, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Of course it is cause for concern. Poland’s aggressiveness is a reality.”
“Such a hostile attitude towards Belarus and the Russian Federation requires increased attention (from our side).”
The failed Wagner mutiny of June 23-24 has been interpreted by the West as a challenge to the government of President Vladimir Putin illustrating the weakness of the 70-year-old Kremlin chief and the strain of the Ukraine war on the Russian state.
Russia rejects that interpretation and says that the Russian people have sided with Putin and the military.
MERCENARY PLANS
An agreement was reached on June 24 whereby the mercenaries would move to Belarus in exchange for the charges against them being dropped. Putin said the fighters could leave for Belarus, come under the command of the Defense Ministry or return to their families.
Wagner has lost 22,000 of his men in the Ukraine war, while 40,000 have been injured and up to 10,000 fighters will end up in Belarus, according to a post by a senior commander that was republished by Wagner’s Telegram channel.
Reuters was unable to confirm what appears to be the most detailed breakdown of Wagner’s figures in several months. But if they are accurate, they give an idea of the extent of the losses both sides are suffering in the Ukraine war, and of the continuing strength of one of the most battle-hardened mercenary forces in the world.
The senior commander known by his nom de guerre “Marx,” Wagner’s chief of staff, said in the publication that a total of 78,000 Wagner’s men had taken part in what he called “the business trip to Ukraine,” 49,000 of them prisoners.
Wagner helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014, fought Islamic State militants in Syria, operated in the Central African Republic and Mali and seized the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for Russia earlier this year with heavy losses on both sides.
“Up to 10,000 fighters have gone or will go to Belarus,” he said. “About 15,000 have gone on vacation.”
The post contradicted comments by a Russian lawmaker who said as many as 33,000 Wagner fighters had signed contracts with the Defense Ministry.
“If all the dead and those who went on vacation signed up, I suppose it’s possible,” Marx said.
Reporting by Felix Light in Tbilisi and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow Editing by Andrew Osborn, Angus MacSwan, William Maclean
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