According to the Telegram channel of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner group has already started training the Belarusian army and its reservists. The notorious mercenaries are camped in Osipovichi, not far from the Lithuanian border, to the obvious alarm of the nearby Baltic states.
The Belarusian Ministry of Defense has prepared a roadmap for cooperation with the Wagner PMC, the ministry’s press service announced at the weekend.
“The Ministry of Defense is receiving a lot of inquiries about further joint training of the armed forces and fighters of the Wagner PMC. We inform you that the military department and the company’s management have developed a roadmap for the near future, which will focus on training and transfer of experience to the various branches and units of the army,” the statement read.
The ministry also announced on Telegram that the Wagner “fighters acted as instructors in a number of military disciplines.”
It also stated that training was taking place near the town of Asipovichy, which is about 90 km (56 miles) south of the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
The armed forces TV channel VoyenTV, meanwhile, reported that preparations for joint training of Belarusian and Russian military personnel in Belarusian training areas have been completed.
“Despite the conduct of exercises planned as part of combat training, (…) units are always ready for immediate deployment to ensure security and defense,” the portal said.
The channel has already published a report on the joint exercise of Wagner PMC and Belarusian soldiers.
Prigozhin was involved in a brief mutiny for 24 hours when Wagner fighters seized Rostov-on-Don and headed north toward Moscow on June 23-24. The revolt quickly ended when Prigozhin agreed to withdraw his fighters to Belarus.
