Russia launches first attack in Ukraine since Wagner Group rebellion
Senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot reports that Ukrainian soldiers shot down 11 Russian cruise missiles and drones.
Wagner Group mercenaries will begin training the Belarusian military, according to the nation's government.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced Tuesday that the volatile mercenary group will be working to instruct the nation's army on weaponry and tactics.
"[Wagner mercenaries] will tell about the weaponry: which weapons worked well and which didn’t," Lukashenko said, according to an official Telegram message.
"And about the tactics, and the arms, how to go on offense and how to defend," he continued. "This is invaluable."
Servicemen of the Wagner Group military company sit in their military vehicles as they prepare to leave an area at the headquarters of the Southern Military District in a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. (AP Photo)
The announcement recontextualizes the Wagner mercenaries' relationship with Russia and ally Belarus following a short-lived mutiny attempt against the Russian government last month.
Lukashenko was reported as a key peacemaker between the Kremlin and the Wagner Group through the ordeal.
"[Russian President Vladimir Putin] is laying the groundwork to open a second front for war in Ukraine, with his best fighting force, Wagner mercenaries, building a combat ready strategic reserve in Belarus on NATO’s border," Rebekah Koffler, president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting and a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, told Fox News Digital.
"Putin and Lukashenko are allies, and it is very well possible that Belarus could join the war in Ukraine, if Russia detects that NATO forces are about to be deployed into the theater," Koffler continued, "It’s also part of Putin’s strategic messaging to NATO that he is holding NATO’s border (Latvia, Lithuania ) at risk with nuclear weapons which Belarus recently received from Russia, to deter NATO from joining the fight in Ukraine."
Putin met with Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the attempted mutiny against the Kremlin last month, just days after the march on Moscow was thwarted.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday the meeting lasted some three hours on June 29, just five days after the attempted mutiny.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko enter the hall during the Supreme Economic Eurasian Council at the Grand Kremlin Palace on May 25, 2023, in Moscow. (Contributor/Getty Images)
Peskov released few details on the hours-long meeting but said that Putin provided an "assessment" of Wagner’s actions on the battlefield as well as "the events of June 24."
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"The commanders themselves presented their version of what happened. They underscored that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the commander-in-chief, and also said that they are ready to continue to fight for their homeland," the spokesman said.
Putin had spent the days following the mutiny by discrediting Prigozhin and claiming that the Russian people did not support his mutinous takeover of Rostov-on-Don and subsequent march toward Moscow.
Fox News' Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.