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Images provided by Planet Labs PLC indicate that dozens of tents have been pitched over the past two weeks at a former military base outside Osipovichi, a town 230 kilometers (142 miles) north of the Ukrainian border. The rows of white and green structures that can be clearly seen in a later image, dated June 30, show no sign.
Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin Its fighters fled prosecution and were offered asylum in Belarus last week after Minsk helped broker a deal to end what appeared to be an armed insurrection by the mercenary group.
The failed rebellion saw Wagner’s forces seize a military headquarters in southern Russia and march hundreds of kilometers toward Moscow, apparently unhindered.
Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country, a close and reliable ally of Moscow, could benefit from Wagner’s experience and expertise, and announced that he had offered the militants an “abandoned military unit” to set up camp.
Aleksandr Azrao, the leader of the anti-Lukashenko guerrilla group BYPOL made up of ex-military personnel, told the Associated Press by phone Thursday that construction of a Wagner mercenary outpost was under way near Osipovichi.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian border force told Ukrainian media on Saturday that up to 8,000 fighters from the Wagner Special Military Force may be deployed to Belarus. Speaking to the newspaper Ukraineska Pravda, Andriy Demchenko said that Ukraine would strengthen its 1,084-kilometre (674-mile) border with Belarus in response.
Lukashenko has previously allowed the Kremlin to use Belarusian territory to send troops and weapons to Ukraine. He also welcomed Russia’s continued military presence in Belarus, including joint military camps and exercises, as well as the deployment of some Russian tactical nuclear weapons there.
Demchenko told Ukraineska Pravda on Saturday that as of this week, about 2,000 soldiers from units of the regular Russian army are still stationed in Belarus.
At a party on Friday evening marking Belarus’ Independence Day, Lukashenko said the Belarusian armed forces could benefit from training Wagner members, and emphasized that the mercenaries “do not pose a threat” to Belarus.
He also declared that he was “sure” that Belarus would not have to use the nuclear weapons deployed on its soil, nor would it become directly involved in Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
“The longer we live, the more we are convinced that (nuclear weapons) should be with us, in Belarus, in a safe place. And I am sure that we will never have to use them as long as we have them, and the enemy will never set foot on our land,” Lukashenko said.
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