Ukraine war: Russia’s Wagner mercenaries emerge in Belarus as troop trainers after failed revolt
- A video posted by the defence ministry is the first official sign of the group’s presence in the country as part of a deal to end the rebellion
- Putin said he had offered Wagner the option of continuing to serve as a single unit under their commander in Ukraine, but Prigozhin had rejected the proposal
Wagner mercenaries have emerged in Belarus as military instructors, the first official sign of the group’s presence in the country since the mutiny in Russia that spiralled into the most serious threat to President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin rule.
The Belarusian defence ministry posted a video on Telegram on Friday that showed territorial defence soldiers receiving instructions from Wagner trainers at a camp near Osipovichi, about 100km (62 miles) southeast of the capital Minsk.
Their Soviet-style uniforms contrasted with the modern battle dress worn by the Wagner mercenaries.
“This is a new way of training territorial troops,” Maksim Payevskiy, head of the Belarus General Staff’s territorial forces department, said on the video. The training may be extended across the country in future, he said.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko brokered the agreement that persuaded Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to end his brief rebellion June 24 after his mercenaries came within 200km (124 miles) of Moscow, meeting little resistance from army units.
Prigozhin had vowed to oust Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, blaming them for failures in Russia’s war in Ukraine and accusing them of seeking to “destroy” Wagner.
Putin agreed as part of the deal to let Prigozhin go to Belarus with any Wagner fighters who wanted to join him, though the group has shown little intention of relocating to the neighbouring country.
Prigozhin has not been seen in public since the mutiny ended.
The Kremlin disclosed on Monday that Putin held nearly three hours of talks with Prigozhin and 35 Wagner commanders five days after the rebellion that the president said had brought Russia to the brink of “civil war”.
Putin said he had offered Wagner the option of continuing to serve as a single unit under their battlefield commander in Ukraine, nicknamed “Grey Hair”, but that Prigozhin had rejected the proposal, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Friday.
