Ukraine, Poland say Wagner fighters arrive in Belarus | World News

Fighters from the Wagner group have arrived in Belarus from Russia, Ukrainian and Polish officers stated on Saturday, a day after Minsk stated the mercenaries had been coaching the nation's troopers southeast of the capital.

"Wagner is in Belarus," Andriy Demchenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian border company, stated in a press release on the Telegram messaging app. He stated the motion of "separate teams" from Russia had been noticed in Belarus.

Some Wagner fighters have been in Belarus since no less than Tuesday, two sources near the fighters instructed Reuters.

The Belarusian defence ministry launched a video on Friday, exhibiting what it stated had been Wagner fighters instructing Belarusian troopers at a army vary close to the city of Osipovichi.

Wagner's transfer to Belarus was a part of a deal that ended the group's mutiny try in June - after they took management of a Russian army headquarters, marched on Moscow and threatened to tip Russia into civil warfare - President Vladimir Putin stated.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has not been seen in public since he left the southern Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don late on June 24.

Poland's deputy minister coordinator of particular companies, Stanislaw Zaryn, stated Warsaw additionally has affirmation of Wagner fighters' presence in Belarus.

"There could also be a number of hundred of them for the time being," Zaryn stated on Twitter.

Poland stated this month it was bolstering its border with Belarus to handle any potential threats.

Whereas not sending his personal troops to Ukraine, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko allowed Moscow to make use of Belarusian territory to launch its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022 and has since let his nation be used as a base for Russian nuclear weapons.

The Belarusian Hajun challenge, which screens army exercise within the nation and which is considered as an extremist formation by Belarusian authorities, stated a big column of no less than 60 autos entered Belarus in a single day Friday from Russia.

It stated the autos, together with vehicles, pickups, vans and buses, had licence plates of the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk individuals's republics in what's internationally recognised as jap Ukraine. In a transfer extensively condemned as unlawful, Moscow moved final 12 months to annex the republics, which have been Russian proxies since 2014.

Hajun stated it appeared that a Wagner column was headed to Tsel in central Belarus, the place overseas reporters had been final week proven a camp with a whole lot of empty tents.

Reuters couldn't independently confirm the Belarusian Hajun report. There was no speedy remark from Russia or Belarus on the studies.