Wagner Group still recruiting even after rebellion, BBC investigation finds
(BBC) Satellite images appear to show activity at an abandoned military base in Belarus, amid speculation about the relocation of forces of the Wagner mercenary group to the country.
A June 27 image obtained by BBC Verify, and first reported by Radio Free Europe, shows what could be tents or similar structures appearing on the base.
An earlier image taken on June 19 shows the fields inside the military compound virtually empty.
The Wagner group was fighting for Russia in Ukraine until last weekend, when it began a rebellion.
Its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, halted a march toward Moscow after a deal was struck with the help of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
After the failed riot, Russian authorities said the Wagner would be disarmed, but its members would not be punished.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the servicemen can join the Russian army, return home, or go to Belarus.
The base seen in the satellite images is about 21 kilometers from the city of Asipovichy – about 64 miles from the capital, Minsk. The area was reported in the Russian press as a place that could harbor fighters from the Wagner group.
Lukashenko has offered to accommodate fighters from the Wagner group in his country, where Prigozhin is believed to be in exile.
The Belarusian leader also mentioned an abandoned military base, but did not specify the location. “There is a fence, everything is available, put up your tents,” he said.
There has since been speculation about a site near Asipovichy, which used to house Belarus’ 465th Missile Brigade before they moved in 2018.
The image taken on June 27 is low resolution, so saying exactly what was built there is difficult, but clearly there has been development since mid-June.
You can see several rows of rectangular structures that appear to be consistent with tents seen at other military bases in the area.
It is not clear who was responsible for erecting these structures.
Ukrainian military expert Oleg Zhdanov told Radio Free Europe that it was “unrealistic” that Wagner’s troops would start building a camp so soon after the rebellion.
But Marina Miron, a researcher specializing in the Russian military at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, said it was possible.
“He (Wagner) is not like an army where everything is slow…if they managed to get halfway to Moscow in a day, it’s plausible to think that they might already be starting to build camps in Belarus,” she said.
Wagner Group still recruiting even after rebellion, BBC investigation finds
The Wagner Group is still recruiting fighters across Russia, days after leading a mutiny that prompted Vladimir Putin to raise fears of civil war.
Through a Russian phone number, we called more than a dozen recruitment centers saying, in case they questioned, that we were asking on behalf of a brother.
All those who answered confirmed that everything was continuing as before.
From Kaliningrad in the west to Krasnodar in the south, no one believed that the group was being disbanded.
In the Arctic city of Murmansk, a woman from the Viking sports club confirmed that she was still hiring mercenaries for the war in Ukraine.
“That’s where we are recruiting for, yes. If anyone wants to go, just give me a call and we’ll set up a day.”
Wagner’s long list of contact points is located primarily in fight clubs, including martial arts schools and boxing clubs.
Several people who answered the phone emphasized that the new members were signing contracts with the mercenary group itself, not the Russian Defense Ministry.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with the Defense Ministry,” said a man from the Sparta sports club in Volgograd. “Nothing has stopped, we are still recruiting.”
The demand for mercenaries to transfer to the Defense Ministry, thus affecting the Wagner Group and its chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, was at the heart of the armed uprising that exploded last weekend.
It was the biggest challenge to President Putin’s authority in his more than 20-year rule, although the Kremlin is at pains to try to make it appear that the Russian leader’s response to the episode was strong and instrumental in preventing the conflict from escalating.
However, the criminal case against the mercenaries was dismissed, in a country where several opposition activists are serving long prison sentences just for speaking out against Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Even Wagner’s leader was released, apparently moving to Belarus – although Prigozhin’s private jet was tracked flying back to Russia on Tuesday night.
And his army, which marched on Moscow and fired on helicopters and a plane in mid-air, does not appear to have been impacted yet.
“We are working. If something had changed, they would have told us. But there is nothing,” clarified a recruiter in Krasnodar, southern Russia.
The salary for a Wagner mercenary remains a generous 240,000 rubles (about $13,000) per month; contracts are for six months.
On Thursday, the chairman of the defense committee in Russia’s parliament said that Prigozhin had been told earlier that the deadline for the Wagner Group to be disbanded by the Defense Ministry was non-negotiable.
“The Defense Ministry said that all groups must sign contracts, and everyone started doing that. Everyone except Prigozhin,” commented Andrei Kartapolov, referring to the mutiny as an act of treason.
“He was informed that Wagner would no longer participate in the Special Military Operation,” in reference to Russia’s war against Ukraine. “Nor would he get funding or material resources.”
Vladimir Putin, who has spent years denying any official ties to the Wagner group, suddenly changed his tune after the weekend mutiny. Apparently trying to reduce Prigozhin’s relevance, Putin claimed that the group was 100 percent funded by the Russian state.
The practicalities of Wagner’s survival, therefore, are unclear.
On Saturday, Putin signed a law indicating that only the Defense Ministry can now recruit from Russian prisons, which had previously been a major source of new Wagner fighters in the conflict with Ukraine.
But the group’s broader recruitment campaign continues.
In Volgograd, the man we spoke with said that if someone signed up today, he “could distribute it tomorrow” and confirmed that Belarus was now a possible destination.
Earlier this week, Belarus’ longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko – who proudly described his role as mediator of the end of Saturday’s uprising – said that Wagner fighters are welcome there.
He suggested that the Belarusian army had much to learn from them.
One Belarusian Wagner member, who goes by the nickname “Brest,” hinted that the group would be good protection for Lukashenko ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections, should there be more mass protests against his authoritarian government.
In a video posted on Telegram and filmed at an unknown location, “Brest” also reminded that the border with Belarus is “less than 300 kilometers from Kiev.” It was like a veiled threat.