Wagner’s mercenary group is currently no longer fighting in Ukraine, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said at the Aspen Security Forum on Friday, Reuters reported.

The group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, appeared on video on Wednesday saying his fighters would not yet participate in the war in Ukraine, but ordered them to gather forces for Africa.

More than 2,000 mercenaries from Wagner’s group have already arrived in Belarus in an organized manner after the head of state, Oleksandr Lukashenko, who brokered the deal between Prigozhin and Russian President Vladimir Putin that ended the armed uprising, invited them to the country. to form an army of Belor.

Last Friday, the Ministry of Defense of Belarus confirmed the arrival of Wagner’s mercenaries in the camp in the Mogilev region and published a report according to which the “Wagners” began training the territorial troops of Belarus.

Putin is looking for ways to replace Wagner’s mercenaries at the front

Wagner’s fighters fought some of the fiercest and bloodiest battles during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But after the June 23-24 uprising, the fighters were given the opportunity to go into exile with their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, join the regular Russian troops, or return home.

Under these circumstances, Russian President Vladimir Putin transferred GROM, the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, to the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardiya), which will allow it to deploy on the Ukrainian front.

“By the president’s decision, the GROM unit is transferred to the Russian National Guard along with its personnel and all infrastructure,” that is, among other things, weapons, special equipment, ammunition, material assets, Khinshtein said in a Telegram post on Monday. .

We will also remind you that also on Tuesday, the Russian parliament increased the maximum age from which men can be mobilized for army service by at least five years – for officers of the highest rank – up to 70 years.

On July 13, more than two weeks after a brief armed uprising in Russia, the Pentagon announced that Wagner’s mercenary group was no longer significantly involved in Russian military operations in Ukraine.

“At this stage, we do not see the Wagner PMC forces participating to any significant extent in support of the hostilities in Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said.

• How the decision to allow Prigozhin to recruit Wagner’s mercenaries from prisons backfired on Putin
• Why Putin can’t live without Wagner’s group: “They do the dirty work so that the Kremlin can deny its involvement”
• How many weapons did the Ministry of Defense of Russia receive from Wagner’s group of mercenaries