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 Defence Ministry said it planned for the mercenaries and Minsk’s own armed forces to conduct joint military drills.
At least 60 vehicles with license plates from Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine, potentially carrying Wagner mercenaries, enter Belarus accompanied by Belarusian police, according to monitoring group Belaruski Hajun. They fought alongside Russian troops until a recent mutiny.
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 15 June and 30 June.
The authoritarian president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said at the time that Minsk could use Wagner’s experience and expertise, and that he had offered the fighters an “abandoned military unit” to set up camp. That same week, a leader of an anti-Lukashenko guerrilla group told the AP that construction of a site for the mercenaries was underway near Osipovichi.
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.
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 Belarusian Defence 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.
