He also spoke about political emigration from Belarus.
Zerkalo.io received a recording of the speech by Belarus’ Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Nikolai Karpenkov at the military unit 3214 on October 18, 2023, to those drafted for training session.
Here are the key points of his monologue:
There’re 1500 enforcers in new special units
Karpenkov said that new special units, which were established in Hrodna, Brest, Astravets and Homiel, have 70 people each. The Smerch special purpose unit has 300 “main” and 150 “reserve” soldiers. The Rys unit (working in the border area) –200-300 people. According to him, in total, there are 1500 enforcers in the new units.
The Internal Troops received more than 600 kamikaze drones
Karpenkov boasted that the Internal Troops had purchased UAVs and trained people to work with them. According to him, the structure has about 680 kamikaze drones at its disposal.
In addition, he said, “Only this month, we have received 30 more combat vehicles armed with large-caliber machine guns.”
Gratitude to Wagner mercenaries
According to Zerkalo.io, Karpenkov repeatedly mentioned cooperation of the Internal Troops with PMC Wagner mercenaries. He noted that in July-August, the mercenaries trained 340 enforcers, in August-September – 370. On October 18, they started training 320 more “officers of the Internal Troops.”
According to him, they have already trained snipers, AGS grenade launcher operators, mortarmen and medics. Equipment is being improved, including the purchase of 5000 pieces of body armor like the ones Wagner mercenaries have.
“Our soldier was wounded just the day before yesterday, and now he is in the hospital”
Karpenkov said that on October 16, during the training with PMC Wagner, “one of our fighters” was wounded (apparently, we are talking about a soldier of the Internal Troops), and now he is in the hospital. There is no information about this incident in open sources.
350,000 Belarusians left Belarus
In his speech, Karpenkov also spoke about political emigration from Belarus: “350,000 of those who don’t support us have fled abroad. There are those who have become more active since the beginning of the special military operation [this is how Karpenkov calls the war in Ukraine].”
