Belarusian Interior Minister Ivan Kubrakov met leaders of the “Wagner” group at a training center and developed with them a “clear action plan” for training Minsk forces.
A statement from the Interior Ministry quoted Kubrakov as saying:
- Given the difficult situation near the Republic’s borders, it is crucial that we are ready to respond to potential challenges and threats.
- The minister praised the “practical experience” of the “Wagner” fighters, who took part, especially for months, in the long and bloody battle of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
- Belarus, Moscow’s ally, is not directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, but the Russian army used its territory and airports as rear bases to attack Kiev in 2022.
- At the end of June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the deployment of reinforcements at the border with Belarus, after announcing the transfer of “Wagner” to this country.
- Belarus regularly accuses Poland of provocations at their common border.
- Warsaw considered that the presence of the Wagner Group in Belarus constituted a “potential threat” to neighboring countries and expressed its intention to strengthen its eastern wing.
- At the end of the week, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko assured his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to “keep” Wagner in the center of the country and to “calculate” the situation.
- Lukashenko said that the members of the group “are asking to turn west, asking me for permission to go on a trip to Warsaw, to Rzeszow (in Poland),” adding, “But of course, I keep them in central Belarus, as we agreed.”
Poland is urbanizing
Last week, Poland announced its readiness for all scenarios, after announcing joint maneuvers between Belarus and the Wagner Group near its borders.
– Poland decided to transfer military formations to the east of the country due to potential threats associated with the group’s presence in Belarus.
– It considered “the training or joint exercises of the Belarusian army and the Wagner Group a provocation.”
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