Wagner Mercenaries and Belarus Hold Military Exercises Near Poland’s Border 

This handout picture posted on July 20, 2023 on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian Defense Ministry shows what is said a joint training of PMC Wagner fighters with Belarusian special forces servicemen at the Brestsky military ground. (Handout / TELEGRAM / @modmilby / AFP)
This handout picture posted on July 20, 2023 on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian Defense Ministry shows what is said a joint training of PMC Wagner fighters with Belarusian special forces servicemen at the Brestsky military ground. (Handout / TELEGRAM / @modmilby / AFP)
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Wagner Mercenaries and Belarus Hold Military Exercises Near Poland’s Border 

This handout picture posted on July 20, 2023 on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian Defense Ministry shows what is said a joint training of PMC Wagner fighters with Belarusian special forces servicemen at the Brestsky military ground. (Handout / TELEGRAM / @modmilby / AFP)
This handout picture posted on July 20, 2023 on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian Defense Ministry shows what is said a joint training of PMC Wagner fighters with Belarusian special forces servicemen at the Brestsky military ground. (Handout / TELEGRAM / @modmilby / AFP)

Mercenaries from Russia's Wagner Group will help train Belarusian special forces during exercises at a military range near the border with NATO-member Poland, the Belarusian defense ministry said on Thursday.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video on Wednesday welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now but ordering them to gather their strength for Africa while they trained the Belarusian army.

"The armed forces of Belarus continue joint training with the fighters of the Wagner PMC (Private Military Company)," the Belarusian defense ministry said.

"During the week, special operations forces units together with representatives of the Company will work out combat training tasks at the Brest military range."

Poland said earlier this month it would send 500 police to shore up security at its border with Belarus to cope with rising numbers of migrants crossing as well as any potential threats after Wagner mercenaries relocated to Belarus.

Wagner's failed June 23-24 mutiny has been interpreted by the West as a challenge to President Vladimir Putin's rule that illustrates the weakness of the 70-year-old Kremlin chief and the strain of the Ukraine war on the Russian state.

The Kremlin rejects that interpretation and says the Russian people have rallied around Putin and the military.

Mercenary plans

A deal was struck on June 24 under which the mercenaries would move to Belarus in return for charges against them being dropped. Putin said the fighters could either leave for Belarus, come under the command of the defense ministry or go back to their families.

Wagner has lost 22,000 of its men in the Ukraine war while 40,000 have been wounded and up to 10,000 fighters will end up in Belarus, according to a post by a senior commander which was republished by Wagner's Telegram channel.

Reuters could not confirm what looks like the most detailed breakdown of Wagner numbers for several months. But if accurate they give an insight into the extent of the losses both sides are suffering in the Ukraine war - and of the continued strength of one of the world's most battle-hardened mercenary forces.

The senior commander known by his nom de guerre "Marx", Wagner's chief of staff, said in the post that a total of 78,000 Wagner men had participated in what he cast as "the Ukrainian business trip", 49,000 of them prisoners.

Wagner helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014, fought ISIS militants in Syria, operated in the Central African Republic and Mali and took the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for Russia earlier this year with considerable losses on both sides.

"Up to 10 thousand fighters have gone or will go to Belarus," he said. "About 15 thousand have gone on holiday."

The post contradicted remarks by a Russian lawmaker who said that as many as 33,000 Wagner fighters had signed contracts with the defense ministry.

"If all the dead and those who went on holiday signed up then I suppose it is possible," Marx said.



Zelenskiy Says Trump is in Disinformation Bubble on Ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy gives a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 19, 2025, amid the Russian attack on Ukraine. TETIANA DZHAFAROVA/Pool via REUTERS
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy gives a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 19, 2025, amid the Russian attack on Ukraine. TETIANA DZHAFAROVA/Pool via REUTERS
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Zelenskiy Says Trump is in Disinformation Bubble on Ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy gives a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 19, 2025, amid the Russian attack on Ukraine. TETIANA DZHAFAROVA/Pool via REUTERS
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy gives a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 19, 2025, amid the Russian attack on Ukraine. TETIANA DZHAFAROVA/Pool via REUTERS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hit back on Wednesday at Donald Trump's suggestion that Ukraine was responsible for Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion, saying the US president was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble.

Speaking ahead of talks with Trump's Ukraine envoy a day after Trump said Ukraine "should never have started" the conflict, Zelenskiy said he would like Trump's team to have "more truth" about Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader said Trump's assertion that his approval rating was just 4% was Russian disinformation and that any attempt to replace him would fail, Reuters reported.

"We have evidence that these figures are being discussed between America and Russia. That is, President Trump ... unfortunately lives in this disinformation space," Zelenskiy told Ukrainian TV.

Less than a month into his presidency, Trump has upended US policy on Ukraine and Russia, ending Washington's bid to isolate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine with a Trump-Putin phone call and talks between senior US and Russian officials.

Trump said he may meet Putin this month. The Kremlin said such a meeting could take longer to prepare but Russia's sovereign wealth fund said it expected a number of US companies to return to Russia as early as the second quarter.

The US-Russia talks on ending the war in Ukraine have excluded both Ukraine and Europe, which Trump says must step up to guarantee any ceasefire. Zelenskiy has suggested giving US companies the right to extract valuable minerals in Ukraine in return for US security guarantees, but indicated that Trump was not offering that.

Zelenskiy told a press conference the US had given Ukraine $67 billion in weapons and $31.5 billion in budget support, and that American demands for $500 billion in minerals are "not a serious conversation", and that he could not sell his country.

He was expected to meet visiting US Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, who said as he arrived in Kyiv that he expected substantial talks as the war approaches its three-year mark.

"We understand the need for security guarantees," Kellogg told journalists, saying that part of his mission would be "to sit and listen".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lauded Trump for saying that previous US support of Ukraine's bid to join the NATO military alliance was a major cause of the war in Ukraine.