Wagner troops training Belarus forces

MOSCOW: Belarus said on Friday that instructors from the Russian mercenary force Wagner were training its troops, following weeks of uncertainty about the future of the group after its failed mutiny in Russia.

The short-lived rebellion was ended by a deal under which some Wagner fighters and their outspoken leader Yevgeny Prigozhin were supposed to move to Belarus.

But Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had cast doubt on the deal when he said earlier this month that no Wagner fighters had moved to the country yet.

The Belarusian defence ministry appeared to confirm that at least some Wagner fighters had arrived.

“Near Asipovichy, units of territorial defence troops are undergoing training,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

“Fighters of the Wagner private military company are acting as instructors in a number of military disciplines,” it said.

The Wagner group, which recruited extensively from Russian prisons, played a key role in the Ukraine offensive.

A video released by the Belarusian defence ministry showed masked fighters as instructors in the drills for soldiers living in a nearby tent camp.

A group of foreign reporters earlier this month was shown a camp near Asipovichy where Belarusian officials said the mercenaries could be based.

The latest development came as the clock ran down on a UN and Turkiye-mediated deal with Russia to allow Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea -- a vital supply route for the developing world.

The deal, signed five months after Moscow´s all-out assault on Ukraine, is set to expire on Monday, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly threatened not to renew it because of obstacles to Russian exports.

“We are preparing to welcome Putin in August and we agree on the extension of the Black Sea grain corridor,” Erdogan told reporters.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state news agency RIA Novosti: “There were no statements on this subject from the Russian side”.