The Wagner Group‘s new base outside a village in Belarus has seen the light of day in its first images.
Near the village of Tsel, massive tents have been erected as barracks for the group that conducted a coup against Vladimir Putin’s government in late June….CONTINUE READING
Vladimir Putin dismissed charges against the Wagner soldiers and their commander Yevgeny Prigozhin after the failed uprising in order to stop “bloodshed.”
But Prigozhin was forced into exile in Belarus, where president Aleksandr Lukashenko also offered to station some of the mercenary fighters.
Their move to Belarus has forced ‘young women and girls’ living nearby in Mogilev region to flee, according to one report.
The group will leave Lukashenko ‘trembling with fear’ as they are ‘extremely undesirable and dangerous’ to his regime, according to Valery Sakhashchyk, defence and security spokesman for the exiled Belarusian government-in-waiting.
The former commander of the Belarusian 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade, he told the i newspaper the overwhelming majority of the country’s forces were opposed to Wagner staying in the ex-Soviet state.
Wagner fighters comprise of hardened criminals released from Russian jails,including rapists and murderers.
They were freed by Putin to fight in their invasion of Ukraine.
Crimean Wind Telegram channel said: ‘Young women and girls living near the location of the PMC Wagner detachments in the Mogilev region began to travel to relatives in other regions of Belarus for fear of being subjected to violence by Prigozhin’s militants.’
The initial encampment holds up to 298 tents accommodating 30 people each, it was reported.
A report said: ‘The first group of Wagner mercenaries has already settled in Belarus and is practicing tank manoeuvres.
‘Another camp is going to be built near Baranovichi.’
Despite tents being seen, there is still some mystery over Prigozhin’s whereabouts, he said.
‘The Wagner leader apparently arrived in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, last week after two his private planes touched down at a military airfield – but the jets then returned to Russia,’ Mr Sakhashchyk said….CONTINUE READING
