A large convoy carrying fighters from the Wagner private army was spotted entering Belarus from Russia early Saturday, a monitoring group reported after the country's Defense Ministry said it planned for the mercenaries and Minsk's own armed forces to conduct joint military drills.
The independent monitoring group Belaruski Hajun, which tracks the movements of armed forces in Belarus, said that at least 60 trucks, buses and other large vehicles crossed into the Eastern European country accompanied by Belarusian police.
The group didn't immediately provide photos or videos of the vehicles but said they had license plates from Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine, where Wagner mercenaries fought alongside Russian troops until a short-lived mutiny last month.
The convoy headed toward a military base outside Osipovichi, a town 142 miles north of the Ukrainian border, Belaruski Hajun said. Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press this month showed rows of tent-like structures that appeared to have been built at the base between June 15 and June 30.
The authoritarian president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said at the time that Minsk could use Wagner's experience and expertise, and that he had offered the fighters an “abandoned military unit” to set up camp. That same week, a leader of an anti-Lukashenko guerrilla group told the AP that construction of a site for the mercenaries was underway near…
