2023-07-14 17:20:00
The Belarusian Ministry of Defense indicated that these fighters play the role of instructors “in a number of military disciplines” with the Belarusian army.
By LL with AFP Members of the Wagner militia during their rebellion in Rostov on June 24. © STRINGER / AFP Published on 07/14/2023 at 5:20 p.m.
Three weeks after Russia’s aborted Wagner Rebellion, fighters from the paramilitary Wagner group began working as “instructors” for Belarus’ territorial defense forces, Minsk announced on Friday.
“Training sessions with units of the territorial troops are taking place near Asipovichy”, in the east of the country, indicated the Belarusian Ministry of Defense, adding that these conscripts learn, among other things, “the techniques of movement on the battlefield and tactical shooting”.
“Wagner fighters play the role of instructors in a number of military disciplines,” adds the Belarusian ministry, which also posted a video of the exercises on YouTube.
“There is no doubt that this is a very useful experience for our army,” says a soldier in this video. “We haven’t been in combat since the end of the war in Afghanistan,” he added, referring to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Front line fighters
Wagner’s fighters played a major role in the Russian offensive in Ukraine, including being on the front line in the bloody battle for Bakhmout, a devastated city whose capture Moscow claimed in May.
On June 24, they occupied an army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, in southern Russia, for several hours and traveled several hundred kilometers towards Moscow, shaking Russian power.
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Their rebellion ended on the evening of June 24, with an agreement providing for the departure to Belarus of Wagner’s boss, Evgueni Prigojine. Its fighters had been offered to join the regular troops, return to civilian life or leave for Belarus, whose President Alexander Lukashenko had served as mediator.
Prigojine’s fate is uncertain, the Kremlin having only admitted having met him at the end of June, a few days after his rebellion, in the company of the main commanders of Wagner. On Friday, several Telegram channels posted a photo of a man resembling him sitting on a cot in a tent in front of a Wagner symbol.
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