OP-ED

Sergey Sukhankin: The ‘Wagner Affair’ in Belarus and its implications for Ukraine

Published Feb. 10, 2021. Updated Feb. 10 at 2:52 am

A screenshot from the Belarusian state TV report shows the documents that were recovered when the country's authorities arrested a group of Russian nationals, allegedly members of Wagner private military group, on July 29.

Photo by Screenshot

At the end of last year, former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko (June 2014–May 2019) announced in an interview that, back in 2018, he had initiated a special operation to detain mercenaries belonging to the notorious Russian private military company (PMC) Wagner Group (News.ru, December 31, 2020)—a shadowy paramilitary outfit allegedly culpable in war crimes committed in Ukraine, Syria, Libya and Sub-Saharan Africa.