Nearly a month after a failed uprising in Russia, Belarus said on Thursday that instructors from the mercenary squad Wagner have started training the ex-Soviet country’s special forces.
“Despite the rain, it’s hot at the Brestsky training ground,” the Belarusian defence ministry said in a statement, releasing pictures of masked fighters in combat gear.
“Over the course of a week, special forces units and representatives of the company will practise combat tasks at the Brestsky training ground,” the ministry said, referring to Wagner.
During its brief uprising last month, Wagner, which was crucial to the Ukrainian onslaught, attempted to overthrow Russia’s military command before giving up.
Strongman leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said his army would profit from the fighting expertise of Wagner officers and offered Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin asylum in Belarus.
Last week, Minsk reported that the instructors had begun training territory defense forces and that the defense ministry and Wagner had developed a “road map” for exchanging experience.
The first videotape of the mercenary leader since the failed uprising surfaced on Wednesday night, purporting to show Prigozhin speaking to his soldiers in Belarus.
In the video published by Telegram channels with links to Wagner, Prigozhin said his fighters will be based in Belarus “for some time” and will help make the country’s army the “second army in the world”.
“What’s happening at the front is a disgrace in which we don’t need to take part,” Prigozhin said, adding that Wagner could go back to the front later.
