The Wagner Group may be supplanting the Russian military as the Belarusian military's key training partner, the Institute for the Study of War said in their latest report.
Wagner personnel conducted company-level training with elements of multiple Belarusian brigades according to the Belarusian Ministry of Defense. Normally, the Belarusian military conducts training exercises with Russian trainers.
Additionally, the ISW stated that Ukrainian forces had conducted counteroffensive operations on at least three sectors of the front on July 31. Ukraine managed to liberate 2 square kilometers of territory in the Bakhmut area and 12.6 square kilometers in the Berdyansk and Melitopol directions.
Earlier this week, Russian troops shelled the town of Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast. The Donetsk regional prosecutor's office said the town had been shelled with cluster munitions. As a result of the attack, a 13-year-old boy who grazed cattle received multiple shrapnel wounds.
A 68-year-old woman was injured by a mine explosion in her own yard, and a 44-year-old man was injured by shrapnel near a cemetery. Earlier that day, a 57-year-old man was killed and two other civilians injured as a result of a Russian artillery attack on the Kostiantynivka community.