Belarus and Ukraine have agreed to beef up their border controls and expand border cooperation after Belarus detained more than 30 alleged Russian mercenaries near Minsk ahead of Belarus' presidential election, the Belarusian foreign ministry said.
The move aims to prevent any attempts to destabilise the two countries, the Belarusian ministry said in a statement following a meeting with Russia's ambassador to Belarus and the acting Ukrainian ambassador there, Reuters said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Belarus security forces overnight Wednesday apprehended just outside Minsk as many as 32 militants with Russia's Wagner private military company, whose fighters had been earlier spotted in various hotspots across the world, including Syria, Libya, and Donbas.
Among those detained in Belarus were several mercenaries who had earlier fought against Ukrainian government troops as part of Russian proxy forces in Donbas, URA.ru reported citing their former commander, a controversial Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin.
