Moscow (EFE).- Between 2,000 and 2,500 mercenaries from the Wagner Group, which led an armed rebellion in Russia on June 23 and 24, have arrived in Belarus in an organized manner since June 11, according to estimates by the Belarusian opposition website MotolkoPomogui.
“We have data that since July 11, at least 5 columns of (Yegeni) Prigozhin’s mercenaries have arrived in Belarus,” the opposition media said.
According to Motolko Pomogui, the Wagnerites arrived in about 400 vehicles.
Only on the 18th, adds the portal, the arrival of two columns was detected, made up of a total of between 170 and 185 cars of different types.
For its part, the Belarusian investigative team Gayun, which monitors military activity on Belarusian territory, Prigozhin’s private plane left the country today.
“At 00:15, Yevgeni Prigozhin’s Embraer Legacy 600 (RA-02795) plane took off from the Machulishchi airfield,” Gayun said on his Telegram channel.
According to the investigation team, the aircraft remained in Belarus for just over 13 hours on its fourth visit to the country since June 27.
The dismantling of the Wagner Group
The armed rebellion of the Wagner Group was stopped when the rebels advanced towards Moscow, thanks to an agreement between Prigozhin and the Kremlin reached with the mediation of the Belarusian president, Alexandr Lukashenko.
Under the agreement, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the mercenaries three options: return home, go to Belarus, or sign a contract with the Defense Ministry or other security agencies in the country to subordinate themselves to the Defense Minister. Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the General Staff, Valeri Gerasimov.
This meant in practice the dismantling, at least in Ukraine, of the Wagner Group, as it had been known since it was created in 2014 following the outbreak of the conflict in Donbas, in eastern Ukraine.
As part of the deal, the Kremlin promised the mercenaries and their boss that they would not be prosecuted.
The Wagner Group has already transferred to the Russian Defense Ministry more than 2,000 war equipment and weapons, including tanks and multiple launch missile systems.