Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video on Wednesday welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now but ordering them to gather their strength for Africa while they trained the Belarusian army.

On Thursday, the Belarusian defence ministry said Wagner mercenaries had started to train Belarusian special forces at a military range just a few miles from the border with Nato-member Poland.

“Training or joint exercises of the Belarusian army and the Wagner Group is undoubtedly a provocation,” Zbigniew Hoffmann told PAP.

“The Committee analysed possible threats, such as the dislocation of Wagner Group units. Therefore, the national defence minister, chairman of the Committee, Mariusz Blaszczak, decided to move our military formations from the west to the east of Poland.”

People living near Poland’s border with Belarus said on Thursday they could hear shooting and helicopters after Russia’s Wagner Group arrived to train Belarusian special forces, compounding their fears the Ukraine war would reach them.

Defense minister Blasczak said earlier this month that Poland began moving over 1,000 troops to the east of the country.

Also at the beginning of July Poland said it would send 500 police to shore up security at the border with Belarus.