As the newspaper writes, "a comprehensive audit of the Russian law enforcement agencies shows that those who decided to earn extra money while guarding abroad" were used "in the dark."

According to a kp.ru source in the Russian special services, the recruitment of the group began with a call from Syria. It is noted that, as it turned out later, the calls were made from a virtual number.

"A certain" Sergei Petrovich "phoned the former ... fighters of the so-called PMC" Wagner "with a tempting offer to work on the protection of oil facilities in Syria," the article says.

The article says that one of the veterans of the hostilities in the Donbass, Artyom Milyaev (call sign "Shaman") volunteered to help recruit the group for "work abroad." Later, another person, “curator Artur”, who called “Shaman” from a Venezuelan number, suggested reorienting himself to “Rosneft's projects”.

In total, five groups were collected.

It is noted that in the first group under the leadership of "Shaman" were mainly people who had previously had Ukrainian citizenship and who fought in the Donbass.

"Departure from the capital of Belarus on the route Istanbul - Havana - Caracas was scheduled for July 25," the article says.

As the newspaper writes, through the office of "Turkish Airlines" in Moscow, it was established that the tickets were purchased ... "in an authorized agency registered in Ukraine, which follows from the response of the Moscow representative office of the Turkish airline."

These tickets were later canceled and rebooked for July 30, but this reservation was also later canceled. The article specifies that the "Shaman" was instructed to destroy the old tickets.

“By tearing the tickets, the Russians thereby destroyed important evidence, a thread from which would lead to Lviv and Kiev,” the article says.

According to media reports, on the border with Belarus, the Russians showed their copies of contracts with the RN-Zapad company, which, as the article claims, were “fake”. The group was taken to Minsk in two minibuses.

On July 29, the entire group was detained.

As kp.ru writes, “as a result, it can be stated that the Ukrainian special services have managed to create a fake project, which involved 180 Russian citizens, while including veterans of the war in Donbass in the first group.”

The publication notes that it is quite possible to assume that the information was “brought to the Belarusian side in a very truncated form”.

Earlier, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, in an interview with Dmitry Gordon, published on the YouTube channel "Visiting Gordon", said that the country had received a signal from the Ukrainian special services about the penetration of another group of militants from the south, but the head of state does not really believe in it.

It was also reported that the presidents of Ukraine and Belarus Vladimir Zelensky and Alexander Lukashenko discussed the issue of extradition of Russian citizens detained in the republic.

On July 29, the state Belarusian news agency BelTA announced the arrest of 33 Russians in Belarus. On July 30 it became known that the detainees were suspected of preparing riots.