tallinn thousands of russialinked wagner group mercenaries have arrived in belarus since the groups shortlived rebellion a military monitoring group said monday between 3450 and 3650 soldiers have travelled to a camp close to asipovichy a town 230 kilometres north of the ukrainian border according to belaruski hajun an activist group that tracks troop movements within the country belarusian president alexander lukashenko welcomed wagner forces into the country after brokering a deal between the kremlin and mercenary chief yevgeny prigozhin last month ending the groups failed revolt against russian military leaders the wagner chief called the mutiny a march of justice to oust the top military leaders the mercenaries faced little resistance and downed at least six military helicopters and a command post aircraft killing a number of russian troops the revolt posed the most serious threat to russian president vladimir putin during his 23year rule eroding his authority and exposing the governments weakness satellite images show that about 700 vehicles and construction equipment have also arrived in wagner convoys to belarus belaruski hajun said prigozhin registered a real estate management company in belarus last week under the name concord management and consulting in belarus documents analysed by independent belarusian media outlet reformby showed that the companys registered address was in the same village as the wagner mercenary camp meanwhile local officials said monday that the mercenaries were continuing to work with belarusian troops including at training grounds close to the polish border wagner fighters who have really been in the heat of combat are passing on valuable information and experience to our servicemen the belarusian defense ministry said in a statement meeting with the russian president on sunday lukashenko said that wagner troops were stressing him out by calling for an excursion into poland the remarks have largely been dismissed by experts with the american institute for the study of war saying that wagner troops there could not threaten ukraine and poland there is no indication that wagner fighters in belarus have the heavy weaponry necessary to mount a serious offensive against ukraine or poland without significant rearmament the think tank said in a statement sunday the deputy head of ukraines main intelligence directorate vadym skibitsky also said that there was no direct threat from russian mercenaries in belarus but that kyiv would be keeping a close eye on wagner fighters our assessment is very simple today there is no direct threat from belarus but we are ready we are monitoring everything related to the socalled wagner missile defence system he told journalists according to the directorates telegram channel