On December 13, the EU imposed sanctions on the Russian PMC Wagner, as well as eight individuals and three entities associated with the unit. There are no Belarusians on the sanctions list. Meanwhile, according to the SBU (the Security Service of Ukraine), at least 12 citizens of Belarus have at different times fought in the Wagner PMC. Belsat.eu recalls what is known about the Belarusian Wagnerovites and how they were treated by Lukashenka’s intelligence service.
The Wagner PMC is a de facto top secret unit of the Russian army, performing special combat missions. For the successful performance of these tasks the Wagnerovites get the state awards of Russia. Apparently, the Wagner Group is directly subordinated to the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. According to the media, the PMC is funded through Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is close to Vladimir Putin. The base of Wagner’s private military company is located in Molkino (Krasnodar Region of the Russian Federation).
In 2018-2019, thanks to the Ukrainian Security Service, the names of 12 Belarusian citizens who allegedly fought in the Wagner PMC became known. The KGB stated that a check had been organised on the basis of this information and the necessary investigative measures were being carried out. But so far there is no known case of the Wagnerovites to have been prosecuted.
Most likely, Lukashenka’s special services have not even tried to seriously deal with the Wagner PMC fighters. As a 2018 Belsat investigation revealed, the mercenaries were not hiding from law enforcement agencies at all: they regularly visited Belarus, and some even obtained new passports in their home country.
Bakunovich’s case
The most famous Belarusian Wagnerovites is, of course, Andrey Bakunovich – he was one of the 33 militants, who were detained in Belarus in the morning of July 29, 2020. Though, while all the other mercenaries were detained in a health centre near Minsk, he was detained in his home in Kalinkavichy. “They came and took him away from his wife and children. We did not understand what was going on at all,” Bakunovich’s sister told belsat.eu at the time.
Surprise of the relatives is understandable: it has long been known about his involvement in the Wagner PMC, but until the elections in 2020 he did not arouse any interest in the intelligence services of Belarus.
Bakunovich, who has dual Russian and Belarusian citizenship, fought in Donbas as a sniper group commander and took part in the operation near Debaltseve in early 2015. At that time, he was seriously wounded and treated in a military hospital of the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation. Then he went on several combat missions to Syria and Libya. Bakunovich’s name was even included in the report on the situation in Libya prepared for the UN Security Council on April 24, 2020. The Belarusian was mentioned there as one of the 122 members of the Wagner PMC who fought in Libya, identified by experts.
Immediately after the detention of 33 Wagner members, these facts of the mercenary’s biography were actively distributed by propaganda resources, thus emphasizing the danger that threatened Belarus. But the KGB’s interest in Bakunovich’s persona appeared suddenly, and suddenly disappeared. After the presidential election, the Kremlin supported Lukashenka, who soon released the Russian mercenaries and even sent his eldest son Viktar to apologise to the Wagnerovites. The 32 mercenaries were sent to Russia, while the 33rd, Andrey Bakunovich, remained in the country.
Friends from Navapolatsk
Navapolatsk natives Vadzim Yushkevich and Kanstantsin Hirs joined the Wagner PMC back in 2015 in Donbas, according to the Ukrainian security services.
Yushkevich is a former police major. He was dismissed from the agencies in 2014 for “violation of work discipline”. A fellow Donbas officer characterised Yushkevich as follows: “He seemed brutal, without principles – as they say, absolutely crazy”. Hirs served his compulsory military service in the 103rd Separate Guards Airborne Brigade, and then tried to go into business, but apparently unsuccessfully.
Interestingly, Hirs and Yushkevich ended up in a militant database created jointly by the KGB and the Interior Ministry and published in July 2021 by the ByPol initiative. Some interesting information about the Navapolatsk natives can be found there. For example, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Hirs had a criminal record (for what – is not specified) and 37 administrative records.
It follows from intelligence data that Yushkevich maintained friendly relations with former police colleagues and visited Belarus at least several times after his participation in the combat operations in Donbas. In January 2018, fighters from GUBAZiK (The Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption) conducted an interview with him, during which Yushkevich denied any involvement in combat operations. These words were enough for the law enforcers – he was not detained or investigated. On the same day GUBAZiK also questioned Hirs, and the result was the same.
The Wagner family contract
Uladzimir Kurynenka, 45, and Edvard Davydau, 30, are natives of the town of Ivanovo in Palessie. They are relatives: an uncle and a nephew.
One of Kurynenka’s neighbours told belsat.eu that Uladzimir once had problems with the law, so he went to Russia and worked in the north. And then he resurfaced in the Wagner PMC: according to the SBU, Kurynenka was the commander of the 1st platoon of the 3rd reconnaissance and assault company.
All neighbours spoke positively about Edvard Davydau and even pitied him, because he was an orphan. Davydau did his compulsory military service in the Belarusian army, then worked as a welder, and then went to earn money in Russia. His acquaintances had learned about the service of Davydau in the Wagner PMC from the media.
Belarusian mercenaries in Sudan
Alyaksei Byarhovin, a former officer of the Internal Troops Special Forces Brigade, served in the military unit 3214 for seven years (2003-2010) Then he tried to go into business, but failed – by his own admission, he was “strangled by Lukashenka’s bureaucracy”.
In 2015, he was inspired by Kremlin propaganda and went to fight in Donbas. He joined the 100th brigade there and was wounded (Byarhovin’s account of his combat experience can be found in the book “Belarusian Donbas”).
In the autumn of 2015, the former special forces officer returned to Belarus. According to data published by ByPol, Byarhovin himself contacted the KGB through his acquaintances and told them about his trips to Donbas. But he claimed that he was just a volunteer there, carrying humanitarian aid. If ByPol is to be believed, the security services perceived these words as a prepared legend. However, despite their distrust of Byarhovin’s testimony, such answers satisfied them completely: he had no problems with law enforcement agencies in Belarus.
Byarhovin lived in Belarus until 2017 and then left for Russia, where he joined the Wagner PMC. According to the SBU, he was one of those sent to Sudan in 2018 to protect local dictator Umar al-Bashir.
In 2019, Byarhovin’s father told Belsat that his flat was searched by KGB officers. But apparently the story did not continue: Byarhovin had no problem visiting relatives in Belarus later.
Another Belarusian, Alyaksandr Stupnitski from Orsha, also got involved in the Wagner Group’s operations in Sudan.
His mother (at least as of 2018) worked in the local department of the Interior Ministry’s Security Department. Aliaksandr himself, if neighbours are to be believed, also served in “security” for a while. In 2014, he went to fight in Donbas, where he met his future wife Anastasia, whom he soon brought to Belarus. They had a child in Orsha.
In 2016, Stupnitski took part in the war in Syria, where he was wounded. For fighting near Palmyra, according to some sources, the Belarusian was awarded the Russian Order of Courage.
Detective, legionnaire and the murdered
The 49-year-old Syarhei Sazanau from Rechytsa worked for 17 years in the police. In the 1990s the local newspaper “Dniaprovets” called him the best detective in the city. But then suddenly Sazanau “didn’t want to be in the system anymore”. After his dismissal, he was deprived of his driving licence, allegedly for using psychotropic substances.
According to his relatives, in 2014, Sazanau travelled to Donbas, allegedly helping to transport humanitarian aid (a legend often used by militants when they wanted to hide their involvement in the war). When and how he ended up with the Wagnerovites is unknown.
Ruslan Babinin served in the French Foreign Legion in the 2000s. Then he tried to do business in Paris, but his firm lasted only a few years and was liquidated in 2015. Probably after that he joined the Wagner PMC.
Two other Belarusian Wagnerovites were killed in Donbas. Both were named Vadzim Vasileuski (they are full namesakes), both previously served in the security forces. One died in the summer of 2014, the other in the summer of 2015. They were buried in Belarus.
The only person on the Belarusian list of Wagnerovites about whom nothing is still known is Syarhei Kuznyatsou from Ivatsevichy. According to the SBU, he served as a scout in the 1st Reconnaissance Assault Company of the Wagner PMC.
***
The list of 12 Belarusians-Wagnerovites cannot be considered exhaustive – we are only talking about those who came to the attention of the SBU as of 2018-2019. It is also not known at the moment which of the 10 living Wagnerovites Belarusians continue to serve in the PMCs and whether any of them remain in Belarus now.
