Mercenaries from Russian military company Wagner launched joint drills with the Belarusian military on Thursday, almost a month after their short-lived rebellion against Moscow. Poland built up troops on its border with Belarus in response to the war games.
The maneuvers followed a pledge by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to help protect Belarus from a potential incursion and to bolster its military. The Belarusian Defense Ministry said the weeklong drills would take place at a firing range near Brest, a city on the Polish border.
A video released Wednesday appeared to show Prigozhin for the first time since he led last month's mutiny. The recording shows him telling his troops that before deploying to Africa, they would spend some time in Belarus providing training to help “make the Belarusian army the second strongest army in the world.”
Before the abortive rebellion led by Prigozhin, Wagner mercenaries fought alongside Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. They also were sent to Syria and several African countries since Prigozhin created the private army in 2014.
The U.K. government on Thursday imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 13 Wagner mercenaries over alleged attacks on civilians and other human rights abuses in Africa. Britain previously sanctioned Prigozhin and several other Wagner commanders over the group’s role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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