Wagner Group fighters serving as instructors in ongoing Belarus military training

MOSCOW

The Belarusian Defense Ministry announced on Friday that the paramilitary Wagner Group has been taking part in ongoing military training alongside the country's armed forces.

The ministry said in a statement that Wagner Group fighters work as instructors in a number of military disciplines at the training of territorial forces, which is taking place in the city of Osipovichi in the Mogilev region of Belarus.

Wagner fighters, who serve as instructors in an array of military disciplines, instruct conscripts on battlefield movement and tactical shooting, as well as engineering training and tactical medicine.

On June 24, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the Russian Defense Ministry of attacking the group’s fighters, declared a “March of Justice” and set off toward Moscow.

The Russian Federal Security Service designated the group’s action “an armed rebellion” and opened a criminal case against Prigozhin, while Putin called the private military company's uprising an act of “treason.”

Prigozhin later turned back “to avoid bloodshed” and has since moved to Belarus under a deal brokered by President Alexander Lukashenko.

The Belarusian president, however, said last week that the Wagner chief is not in Belarus but in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His current whereabouts are unknown.