Wagner Group mercenaries have already begun training Belarusian troops in a camp near the town of Osipovichi, 230 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, the Belarusian Defense Ministry reported today.
“Territorial defense training takes place near Osipóvichi,” says a Defense message on Telegram, indicating that local troops are trained in some military disciplines by “instructors from the private military company Wagner.”
Defense also published a video of the training with comments from some of its soldiers about the mercenaries. “They participated in combat actions and this, of course, is a very useful experience for our Belarusian Army, which has not participated in real combat since the (Soviet) Afghanistan war,” a soldier said.
“They are very prepared people, who know what they are doing, they can teach us many things. It is a very useful tool,” said another. Another Belarusian soldier assured that today “it is necessary to carry out this kind of preparation” military.
“We are very motivated and we are willing to defend the homeland,” he asserted. This week the Belarusian Ministry of Defense announced that it planned to take advantage of Wagner’s arrival in the country to carry out an “exchange of experiences” between the Belarusian regular army and the Russian paramilitaries.
A week ago the Belarusian authorities stated that Wagner’s mercenaries, who were to move to that country after the failure of the June 24 uprising, were still not at the base offered by Minsk.
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko previously said that the Wagner Group is the “most combat-experienced” unit and that it “can serve the defense of Belarus if the country is attacked.”
