This withdrawal operation encountered resistance from the Belarusian special services, which tried to block the exit.
After the air incident that caused the alleged death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group, a massive withdrawal of its members from Belarus is reported.
The fatal accident in the Tver region
According to reliable sources, Prigozhin was registered as a passenger on the plane that crashed in Tver, Russia, where, unfortunately, all the people on board perished. Russian President Vladimir Putin indirectly confirmed this tragic news, who alluded to his relationship with Prigozhin and the time he knew the Wagner founder.
The National Center of Resistance of Ukraine, an institution created by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, noted that after the public knowledge of the accident, Wagner’s forces in Belarus began to evacuate in convoys bound “probably” for Russia. This withdrawal operation encountered resistance from the Belarusian special services, which tried to block the exit of the mercenary vehicles.
Reports by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty affiliate Radio Svoboda and Belaruski Hajun, an independent Minsk-based observatory, confirmed via satellite images the eviction of at least a third of Wagner’s main camp in Belarus.
Satellite images show the mobilization.
Satellite recording obtained by Radio Svoboda, courtesy of Planet Labs, located the Wagner camp in Tsel, a village near Osipovichi and the Ukrainian border. Previous images already showed an increase in activity in June after an internal conflict between Prigozhin and Moscow. Part of the deal with the Kremlin to drop charges against Prigozhin was his exile to Belarus, where his forces began to establish themselves in July.
Information provided by Radio Svoboda indicates that the Tsel camp had 273 tents, of which 101 have already been dismantled. Each tent is estimated to have housed approximately 20 soldiers, suggesting that as many as 2,000 Wagner fighters may be in the process of evacuation.
