Wagner forces training Belarusian army

The Wagner Group may be replacing the Russian military as the “key training partner” of the Belarusian Armed Forces, a leading conflict think tank has claimed.

The Belarusian Ministry of Defence (MoD) posted a video on Sunday (July 30) showing the first combined arms assault practice (artillery support covering advancing soldiers) alongside the Wagner Group.

The MoD claimed that the two forces were conducting “joint training” but acknowledged that the Belarusian Armed Forces, not known to be formidable, were “taking into account the experience of [Wagner] specialists”.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, said that such drills, which have previously been organised by the Russian military, suggest that Wagner could be “supplanting the Russian military” in Belarus.

It comes as Yevgeny Prigozhin, the financier of Wagner and an internationally-recognised war criminal, said on Tuesday (August 1) that his mercenary outfit was “defining our next tasks”, adding they “will be carried out in the name of the greatness of Russia”.

READ MORE Wagner warlord shuts down ‘lack of soldiers’ rumours in brief voice message[REVEAL]

The training tasks over the weekend focused on teaching cohesion between multiple “subdivisions of mechanized brigades”, the MoD said, including platoons (up to a dozen troops) and companies (made up of at least three platoons; up to 250 troops).

They added that the multiple forces were taught by Wagner “survivability on the field”, referring to concealment from enemy drones, and “conducting combat operations in modern conditions”, a nod to combined arms assault tactics with tank and artillery support.

It was the second time since Wagner’s arrival on the outskirts of the village of Tsel that they had been filmed during personnel training.

A Belarusian airborne brigade that historically trains with the Russian 76th Airborne (VDV) Division was instructed by Wagner earlier in July.

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The influence of the Wagner Group on the military of a puppet state of Russia is difficult to understand given their mutinous “March on Moscow” on June 24, which amounted to the most significant threat to Vladimir Putin’s rule since he became acting President at the turn of the millennium.

The founder of the Belarusian Hajun Project, which analyses the military movements in Belarus, suggested Wagner’s relocation seemed to be “some semblance of punishment” for the insurgency.

But they added that they “are under the control, and on the payroll, of the Russian Ministry of Defence”.

The Wagner Group, with forces all over the world but particularly in West and Central Africa, had long been suspected to be propped up by the financial support of the Kremlin but Putin only acknowledged this after the mutiny, as he attempted to undermine the perceived power of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

That Wagner is training Belarusian forces suggests Putin is now trying to distance himself from those that tried to overthrow him while also taking advantage of their military attributes.

Relocating the mercenaries to Belarus has also unsettled the neighbouring NATO countries, a consequence which the Kremlin will have intended as a means of unnerving Ukraine’s most vocal supporters.

Wagner’s private status removed from the Russian authorities – though this is still likely a facade – means Putin can claim not to be responsible for Wagner’s actions if they were to cause issues with other former Soviet Union countries now aligned with the West.

Though any sort of invasion is unlikely, as acknowledged by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on Monday (July 31), there is still considerable anxiety about the presence of Wagner in Belarus.

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