Wagner publishes pictures of its leader welcoming his fighters in Belarus
Deploy forces Wagner Pictures of its commander, Yevgeny Prigozhin, welcoming his fighters to Belarus
“Our fighters will stay in Belarus for some time,” said Commander Wagner.
He explained that “what is happening on the front in Ukraine is a disgrace and we should not take part in it.”
He added, “We will make the Belarusian army the second best in the world and we will fight for them if necessary.”
A monitoring and control group had previously said that more mercenaries from the Russian military contractor Wagner had entered Belarus in the past two days, as they continue to move to the former Soviet republic after a short-lived rebellion last month.
And the “Belarusian Hagun”, a Belarusian activist group that monitors troop movements in Belarus, announced that a convoy of about 20 vehicles carrying Russian flags and Wagner insignia entered the country on Monday, heading towards a camp where the Belarusian authorities offered to host them. It added that it was the third convoy of Wagner mercenaries to enter the country since last week.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who brokered a deal that ended last month’s rebellion by Wagner commander Yevgeny Prigozhin, said his country’s army could benefit from the combat experience of the mercenaries.
On Friday, Belarusian state television broadcast a video clip of Wagner forces training the Belarusian territorial defense forces at a shooting range in the Asipovici region, where the camp where Wagner forces will be located.
A Belarusian channel on a messaging app claimed last week that Prigozhin had spent a night in the camp near Tsel, about 90 kilometers southeast of Minsk, and posted a photo of him in the tent.
In the rebellion that began on June 23 and lasted less than 24 hours, Prigozhin’s mercenaries quickly swept through the city of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, seizing the military headquarters there without firing a shot, before advancing nearly 200 kilometers from Moscow, in what Prigozhin described as a “march.” justice” to overthrow Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov, who demanded that Wagner sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense.
The rebellion met little resistance, and the mercenaries shot down at least six military helicopters and a command center plane, killing at least 10 pilots.
Prigozhin ordered his forces to return to their camps after concluding an agreement to end the rebellion in return for pardoning him and his men, and allowing him to move to Belarus.
The Belarusian Ministry of Defense did not say how many Wagner soldiers are in Belarus. Lukashenko has previously said that it is up to Prigozhin and Moscow to decide on a move to Belarus.
And through the Wagner channel, on a messaging application, a video recording was broadcast on Monday, showing the flag of Russia and Wagner, as they landed at the main center of the mercenaries in the city of Molkino in the Krasnodar region, southern Russia.
The channel said that the headquarters will be completely closed by July 30, and one of the mercenaries announced in the recording that Wagner will move to a new location, which he did not specify.
Wagner’s mercenaries also used camps in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine.
