Mercenaries from Russian military company Wagner launched joint drills with the Belarusian military on Thursday, almost a month after their short-lived rebellion against Moscow. Poland built up troops on its border with Belarus in response to the war games. The maneuvers followed a pledge by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to help protect Belarus from a potential incursion and to bolster its military. The Belarusian Defense Ministry said the weeklong drills would take place at a firing range near Brest, a city on the Polish border. A video released Wednesday appeared to show Prigozhin for the first time since he led last month’s mutiny. The recording shows him telling his troops that before deploying to Africa, they would spend some time in Belarus providing training to help “make the Belarusian army the second strongest army in the world.” For more on Wagner’s joint training with the Belarusian military on Poland’s border, FRANCE 24’s Tom Burges Watson is joined by Velina Tchakarova, Founder of FACE Geopolitical Consultancy, Instructor at the Real-World Risk Institute and serves as a Peer Board Member of the Defence Horizon Journal.
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