The private military company (PMC) Wagner in Belarus
(17.10.2022) The Russian private military company (PMC) Wagner acts (in the language of special services – «operates») freely in Belarus. This is the same one which has become famous for its war crimes worldwide, and recently especially because of participation in the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
But first, a little bit of reference to clarify the issue. Company GuardService is the first Belarusian private security company that was permitted to carry and use weapons by a special decree of Lukashenka. have been trying to trace. Different media in their investigations have repeatedly tried to trace its lineage. In particular, the journalists found out that GuardService has its roots in Administrative Affairs Office of the President.
The organization has a direct connection to Lukashenka and his longtime collaborator Viktor Sheiman. A source inside GuardService told reporters that on July 31, 2022, 20-25 people from the notoriously famous Russian PMC Wagner arrived in Minsk to train ordinary employees of the Belarusian security company.
According to an employee of GuardService, the basic training took place on the territory of the former Special Training Center at the Dynamo sports society. This building is located in Minsk on Karvata street.
Belarusian “guards” have been learning things that are completely unusual for their nominal activities: clearing out buildings, assault actions in the city, engineering preparation. Unknown people brought a lot of other weapons to GuardService (not the same as ordinary weapons are usually used by staff). Trainings began with heavier weapons – such as rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), automatic grenade launchers on the machine (AGS), Kalashnikov machine guns. A lot of time is devoted to tactical medicine. Now the company is almost not engaged in the protection of objects, but it’s tightly engaged with military issues.
At the moment, the company has several hundred people – up to 500. This means that a full-fledged battalion can be formed from it. In the summer the employees were also increasingly vocal about the facts both planned expanding the staff and expected purchasing heavier weapons.
All this is confirmed by the Ukrainian special services – they are sure that Russian mercenaries, together with Belarusian “assistants”, can arrange a provocation on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. According to them, on September 20, 130 mercenaries of the Russian PMC Liga arrived in Minsk with personal weapons and ammunition. Already on September 22, 300 sets of Ukrainian military uniforms, which the Russians seized in warehouses in the Kherson region, were delivered to the territory of the Belarusian private security company GuardService, where the mercenaries are located.
Possible sabotage, according to the Ukrainian side, is expected in the area of the cities of Pinsk, Ivanovo and Kobrin. Such acts of sabotage play directly into Moscow hands, which seeks to draw additional forces into this war, in particular Belarus. Also, according to an officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Anatoly Shtefan, the risk of using joint Russian-Belarusian sabotage and reconnaissance groups (SRG) in Ukraine is now very high, particularly in Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr and Kiev regions.
Nash Dom: The private military company (PMC) Wagner in Belarus and its shell company. Excerpts. October 17, 2022. Source: https://news.house/54578
Keywords: ⇒ Belarus ⇒ Militarization ⇒ Military