Up to 700 Wagner Group fighters arrive in Belarus – Ukrainian intelligence

July 18, BPN. A spokesman for the Ukrainian defense ministry’s intelligence department has said that 500 to 700 fighters from Russia’s Wagner Group arrived in Belarus as of last night to train Belarusian and Russian soldiers and “irritate” Poland and other NATO countries.

They pose no immediate threat to Ukraine since they have arrived without heavy weapons, Andrii Yusov said, as quoted by RBK-Ukraina. “But that is a significant number of people with combat experience. We are monitoring the situation, and it does not change the security environment,” he said.

The Kremlin-linked private military contractor announced its relocation to Belarus in early July after a feud with the Russian defense ministry and a failed mutiny. Wagner Group members are training Belarusian territorial troops near Asipovičy, Mahiloŭ region, sharing their combat experience, the Belarusian defense ministry said last week.

On July 15, the National Resistance Center of Ukraine quoted Belarusian underground activists as saying that some 240 Wagner Group fighters, 40 trucks and large quantities of weapons were deployed near Asipovičy. On the same day, a Belarusian defense monitoring project, Biełaruski Hajun, reported that at least 60 Wagner Group vehicles entered the country near Kryčaŭ, Mahiloŭ region.

Yesterday, Belarusian Telegram channels published a video of a convoy moving toward Asipovičy. It consisted of at least 20 vehicles – buses, trucks, cars and construction machinery under the flags of Russia and the Wagner Group.