Official: Wagner mercenaries haven't visited Belarusian military camp yet

Representatives of Russia's Wagner mercenary group have not yet visited the military camp near the town of Asipovichy in Belarus, Leonid Kasinsky, an advisor to the country's defense minister, said on July 7, as cited by Russian state news agency TASS.

"They will look at (the camp) when Wagner makes a final decision on whether to deploy to Belarus," he said.

Minsk allowed foreign media to access the camp amid reports that the new facility, lying 200 kilometers from Ukraine's border, is meant to house Wagner mercenaries.

According to CNN, the camp can house up to 5,000 people but remains mostly empty at the moment.

"We prepared this camp for the training of territorial defense and militia," Kasinsky told CNN.

The Wagner Group and its founders were set to leave for Belarus after its short-lived rebellion against the Kremlin on June 23-24.

Soon after that, media reports suggested that a new camp for Wagner was being built near Asipovichy in Mahilyow Oblast. The construction of the camp was later confirmed by satellite imagery.

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko claimed on June 27 that Prigozhin had indeed arrived in the country, but he said on July 6 that the mercenary boss had returned back to Russia.