A large convoy of vehicles and fighters from Wagner’s private army was seen entering Belarus from Russia early Saturday morning, a monitoring group said, after the country’s Defense Ministry said it planned to hold joint military exercises between mercenaries and Minsk’s armed forces. Guardian.

The Border Guard Service of Ukraine confirmed on Saturday that mercenaries of the “Wagner” PMC have arrived in Belarus from neighboring Russia, the BBC reports.

The DPSU says it is assessing the number of “militants” in Belarus, which also shares a border with Ukraine, as well as their exact location and goals.

The independent monitoring group Belarus Hayun, which tracks the movements of the Belarusian armed forces, said at least 60 trucks, buses and other large vehicles crossed the eastern European country, escorted by Belarusian police.

The group did not immediately provide photos or video of the vehicles, but said they had license plates from Russian-occupied areas in eastern Ukraine, where Wagner’s mercenaries fought alongside Russian forces before a brief uprising last month, according to the AP.

The column was heading to the military base near Osypovychy, a town 230 kilometers north of the border with Ukraine.

Satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press this month showed rows of tent-like structures that appear to have been built at the base between June 15 and 30.

Mercenaries from the “Wagner” PMC have begun training Belarusian soldiers, the Ministry of Defense in Minsk announced on Friday, releasing a video report about it, Reuters reports.

The Ministry of Defense of Belarus has released footage it claims shows Wagner’s mercenaries training the country’s military at a training ground near the town of Osypovychi, 90 kilometers southeast of Minsk.

Alexander Lukashenko’s office announced on the evening of June 24 that he had brokered an agreement between the Kremlin and Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner’s mercenaries, to end the rebellion he had started the night before.

The Belarusian dictator later said that Wagner’s mercenaries could be given a decommissioned military base to set up a center in his country, but that plan remained in the air after he also announced on July 6 that Prigozhin was no longer in Belarus, but in St. Petersburg. .

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