The Wagner Group trains Belarus | The military of the neighboring country would have hired him

2023-07-15 05:01:00

Wagner militia mercenaries are conducting military training in Belarus, the Belarusian government, which backs Moscow’s military offensive against Ukraine, said on Friday. “The fighters of the Wagner private military company act as instructors in various military areas” and train “units of the territorial defense troops” of Belarus, the Defense Ministry said in Minsk. Belarusian recruits learn “battlefield movement techniques and tactical shooting,” he added.

The Wagner group, which played a key role in the Russian offensive in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, rebelled three weeks ago against the General Staff of the regular army. The whereabouts of their leader Prigozhin is uncertain. The US Department of Defense said on Thursday that Wagner’s mercenaries are no longer “significantly” involved in the fighting in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian expectation of a weakening of the Russian troops after the Wagner rebellion has not been confirmed so far and the Ukrainian counter-offensive, launched in June to recapture territories in the east and south, “is currently not progressing so fast,” the chief admitted. of the Ukrainian presidential cabinet, Andrii Yermak, referring to the intensity of the fighting. In the last week, Ukrainian troops have barely advanced 1,700 meters in the south, kyiv said.

kyiv claims that the scant progress is due to the slowness of its Western allies in delivering promised weapons. It also calls for more long-range weapons and fighter planes to deal with the Russian troops. The counteroffensive is answered with periodic Russian bombardments against several cities, including kyiv. The Ukrainian military said on Friday it had shot down 16 of 17 Iranian-made Shahed 136/131 combat drones launched by Russia from the southeast.

Despite the slow pace of the counteroffensive, there have been some gains in the south and north of Bakhmut, which fell to Russian hands in June after months of fighting in which Wagner’s men played a predominant role.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he proposed to Wagner’s boss Yevgeny Prigozhin that his fighters serve under the official authority of another command, but that he rejected the offer. In an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Putin elaborated on a meeting with Prigozhin on June 29. Wagner’s fighters “could have been gathered in one place and continued their service. Nothing would change for them, they would be led by the person who was really their commander all this time,” Putin said. The newspaper specified that this person is a commander of the Wagner group known as “Sedoy” (gray hair), who according to Putin was the one who really led the paramilitaries on the Ukrainian front during the last 16 months.