Wagnerites in Belarus: Ukrainian border guards track movements of Russian mercenaries
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine confirms the presence of separate groups of Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) in Belarus, and Ukrainian law enforcement officers will closely monitor their steps on the territory of this country.
Source: Andrii Demchenko, Speaker for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda
Quote: "As we reported earlier, given the statements and rhetoric of the Belarusian leadership regarding the reception of Russian mercenaries and the arrangement of places for their deployment, it was impossible to exclude that sooner or later they would appear in Belarus.
Currently, available information shows that separate groups of representatives from private military campaigns moving from the territory of Russia have begun to be observed in Belarus.
In turn, we continue to monitor this situation to understand all the places where they will be deployed, how many of them there will be, and what tasks they will perform."
Previously: On the morning of 15 July, a large convoy of cars and trucks with the number plates of the so-called Donetsk/Luhansk People's Republics were spotted in Belarus with Wagner Group mercenaries in them, the Belaruski Hajun [an independent Belarusian military monitoring media outlet] reported.
Background:
- Vyorstka, a Russian media outlet, reported that the camps were being set up in Belarus to lodge the mercenaries of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) after the agreements with Alexander Lukashenko, self-proclaimed President of Belarus, who negotiated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner PMC.
- The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine refuted this information. The service stressed that the intelligence is thoroughly tracking the situation in the country, which is an accomplice of Russia, the aggressor state.
- Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, claimed that they do not build camps for the Wagner PMC but will "help with accommodation" if necessary.
- "We are not building any camps yet. But if they want to (I understand they are looking at certain areas), we will accommodate them. Put up tents, if you like. But for now, they are in Luhansk in their camps…We offered them one of the abandoned camps. They are welcome – the fence is there, and everything is in place. Put up your tents. We will help them as much as we can until they decide what to get up to," Lukashenko claimed.
- On 14 July, the Defence Ministry of Belarus reported that the mercenaries of the Wagner Group had begun training the territorial troops as instructors in Belarus.
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