The arrival of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus does not fundamentally change the security situation in the region, assures the Lithuanian defence minister.
Observers reported over the weekend that a contingent of fighters from the Russian mercenary group Wagner – at least 60 different vehicles – had arrived in a camp in Belarus in recent days.
“I would not call them units, I would call them groups, which are being moved to Belarus without weapons, ammunition and logistics, the number is not large. It does not fundamentally change the situation in the region, which has been complicated since the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” Minister Arvydas Anušauskas told BNS on Monday.
“On the contrary, the Russian military presence in Belarus, despite Wagner mercenaries, has been reduced because, as we know, the troops mobilised for training were returned to Russia some time ago,” he added.
The minister also said that the mercenaries were not a major concern for Lithuania at the moment.
“You know, the risks were high when 40,000 or more Russian troops with all their ammunition, heavy weapons and aviation were very close to us a year and a half ago. To compare these groups with those forces... For us to be scared of a group a thousand times smaller than that, it should not happen, frankly speaking,” Anušauskas said.
Wagner is likely to try to establish a logistics base in Belarus for its operations in Africa, he added.
“They were disarmed in Russia, ammunition and heavy weapons were taken from them. Everything was left in Russia. It is clear that there was no agreement that they would come to Belarus with weapons,” the minister said.
Asked how many Wagner mercenaries could be in the neighbouring country at the moment, he said that it was “a small number” but did not give a more precise figure.
Meanwhile, an adviser to the Lithuanian president said Vilnius should not overreacted to the Wagner presence in Belarus.
“It’s a risk factor affecting [our security]. We cannot ignore it, but we should not overreact either,” Kęstutis Budrys told reporters on Monday.
Budrys could not say how many mercenaries were currently in Belarus either.
“We can confirm that people associated with the Wagner group are on Belarusian territory. The exact number varies a bit,” the adviser to President Gitanas Nausėda said. “A column of half a hundred cars, we can talks at least about the presence of drivers, but who is in that column, who are these people, we still need some time to be able to state exactly.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner group’s founder and leader, staged a mutiny against Russian military leadership in June but later called it off.
Following the failed revolt, the Kremlin made a promise to allow Wagner fighters to relocate to Belarus, if they wanted, or to sign a contract with the Russian Defence Ministry.
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