Wagner mercenaries have emerged in Belarus as military instructors, the first official sign of the group’s presence in the country since the mutiny in Russia that spiraled into the most serious threat to President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin rule.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry posted a video Friday on Telegram that showed territorial defense soldiers receiving instructions from Wagner trainers at a camp near Osipovichi, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of the capital Minsk. Their Soviet-style uniforms contrasted with the modern battle dress worn by the Wagner mercenaries.
“This is a new way of training territorial troops,” Maksim Payevskiy, head of the Belarus General Staff’s territorial forces department, said on the video. The training may be extended across the country in future, he said.
