The fighters of the Russian mercenary group Wagner will receive new passports from the Ministry of Interior in Minsk. Former Belarusian culture minister Pavel Latushko said this on Monday. These are real documents with new first and last names.
The Wagner fighters could use this to enter the EU and carry out terrorist attacks there, said the politician, who lives in exile. He did not say how many mercenaries had already received new passports. After a failed uprising by the Wagner army against the Moscow military leadership in June, Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko invited the group to his country. According to Latuschko, there are still thousands of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus.
Here you can see an infographic about the Wagner mercenary group.
Several hundred of them have already signed contracts with the Belarusian Ministry of Defense. “They could be used in special units of the Belarusian army to create problems at the border and to cooperate with illegal migrants who daily attack the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia,” said the former culture minister. For example, people from Syria and Afghanistan are trying to reach the EU through the Belarusian forests. These, and especially the governments of Poland and Latvia, accuse Lukashenko of bringing refugees from crisis areas to the EU’s external borders to exert pressure.
Up to 10,000 mercenaries in Belarus?
The Baltic governments also commented on the Wagner group on Monday. The group is “capable of anything,” said Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski. He was referring to allegations against mercenaries of crimes against humanity. “We have asked the Lukashenko regime to expel the Wagner group immediately.” According to Polish information, thousands of fighters are also stationed in Belarus. However, the ruler there had already indicated that it would soon be a maximum of 10,000.
The death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash has raised questions about the company’s future. The group had played a major role in the Russian offensive against Ukraine (see video above). After the uprising ended in June, the fighters were given the choice of going to Belarus or joining the regular Russian army.
Source: Krone
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