The Russian Embassy in Belarus has received an official notification from the country's Foreign Ministry that 32 Russians have been detained. This is stated in the message of the diplomatic mission on Twitter.

“The embassy has received from the main consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus an official notification of the detention of 32 Russian citizens in the republic,” the message says.

In turn, State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Andrei Ravkov said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic will invite the ambassadors of Russia and Ukraine because of the current situation.

“The tasks, among other things, relate to the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of sending requests and inviting ambassadors of both the Russian Federation and Ukraine for certain explanations and discussion of relevant issues. Already now, according to the available information based on the results of surveys of these people, about 14 people are those who passed through the people registration program, were recorded in Donbass. Therefore, the ambassador of Ukraine is invited on this issue, ”TASS quoted him as saying.

The head of the Security Council added that Belarus will strengthen operational coverage of the state border, including with Russia.

Earlier, the Belarusian news agency BELTA reported that on the night of July 29, law enforcement officers detained a group of militants of a foreign private military company (PMC) near Minsk. 32 people were detained.

“Tonight, law enforcement officers of Belarus near Minsk detained 32 militants of the foreign private military company Wagner. In addition, one more person was found and detained in the south of the country, ”the agency said.

The publication claimed that they had moved to a sanatorium near Minsk. According to the agency, the visitors attracted attention with "behavior uncharacteristic for Russian tourists" and their appearance.

Russian senator, GRU Colonel Alexei Kondratyev noted that information about the detention of Russian citizens allegedly belonging to the Wagner PMC requires a check by law enforcement agencies. 

Kondratyev pointed out that private structures have nothing to do with state policy and called for clarification of which organization the detainees could belong to.

"Information about the detention of Russians in Belarus requires verification, the law enforcement agencies of our countries need to cooperate along this line," the senator said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

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President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, after reports of the detention of Russians, convened an urgent meeting with members of the country's Security Council and instructed to deal with the situation.

During the meeting, the head of the State Security Committee (KGB) of Belarus, Valery Vakulchik, also said that the detainees - 32 citizens of the Russian Federation - are members of the Wagner PMC.

Meanwhile, writer Zakhar Prilepin told URA.RU that among the detained Russians there are people who served with him in the Donbas in the same battalion.

“There are two or three fighters from my battalion there. Actually, if not dozens, then hundreds of people work in PMCs and take part in military conflicts, "he said.

At the same time, the writer doubted that the fighters came to Belarus to destabilize the situation in the country during the elections, as stated in the BelTA news agency.

Prilepin also wrote in his Telegram channel that “if the Belarusian leadership starts using this story for their own purposes,” it “will look ridiculous”.

“Here, as far as I can judge from the outside, a common story - well-trained people move in certain directions along their routes, they have their own affairs, they don't need any Belarus. The fact that three dozen men in camouflage were going in some other direction is well known to the Belarusian special services, I am sure. I don’t know why they started all this, ”Prilepin wrote.

In turn, State Duma deputy Leonid Kalashnikov called the current situation a misunderstanding, and expressed hope that the Belarusian special services would quickly sort it out.

“The fact that this is some kind of Russian company, especially a private security company, (I think) is an extremely improbable fact, because it is absolutely not in Russia's interests, and Russia never interferes in this kind of games,” the deputy said.