Belarus: Camps for the training of the Russian military are dismantled

In early July, in Belarus, tent camps began to be dismantled for training the Russian military, the Belarusian Radio Liberty Service reports based on the analysis of satellite images of Planet Labs.

According to the publication, we are talking about three training grounds: "Lepel" in the Vitebsk region, "reposch" near Osipovichi and "Obiz-Lesnovskoye" near Baranavichy. Camps for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation appeared there after the announcement of mobilization in Russia.

The interlocutors of Radio Liberty allow several versions of the reasons for the dismantling of the camps. The first - Russia now has enough resources to train mobilized on its territory. The second - these camps are simply relocated.

The third - camps for Russian troops were needed in Belarus to maintain the appearance of the threat of Ukraine attack from the territory of the republic. The need to maintain this visibility could disappear against the background of statements about the transfer of Wagner PMCs to Belarus.

After the armed rebellion of PMCs and its founder Evgeny Prigozhin on June 23–24 it became known that mercenaries, through the mediation of the Belarusian authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, were allowed to move to Belarus. Satellite pictures of the likely tent camp of the Wagnerians in the Mogilev region appeared in the media.

Lukashenko openly says that such a unit, as Wagner, would not interfere with the Belarusian army. At the same time, he rejects applications for the construction of military camps for mercenaries in the country. Lukashenko also insists that at the moment in the territory of Belarus there is neither the head of the PMC Evgeny Prigozhin, nor the "Wagnerians".

• In October last year, Alexander Lukashenko announced that he had agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin to deploy a joint group of troops in Belarus. The Belarusian military department reported that the number of Russian military as part of the group will be a little less than 9 thousand people.
• In March, Vladimir Putin said that Russia will place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. According to him, Russia does not give Belarus nuclear weapons, but place its weapons on its territory.