The armed forces of Belarus on Thursday began the first publicly known training drills with Russias exiled Wagner fighters.Video shared by the Belarusian Defense Ministry showed members of its Special Operations Forces and masked men in military fatigues with Wagner patches performing combat tasks at a training facility.Were trying to absorb everything like a sponge, to analyze and deploy [Wagners training] in practice in the future, an unnamed Belarusian soldier was quoted as saying in a Defense Ministry statement.The four-day exercises are taking place at military training grounds in Brest, around three kilometers from Belarus western border with Poland, a member of both NATO and the EU.Polands Defense Ministry, which has moved more than 1,000 soldiers to its eastern border amid reports of Wagners deployment in Belarus, said Thursday it was ready for any scenario.The Kremlin said it was concerned about the Polish militarys hostile reinforcements near the border with Belarus.Belarus Defense Ministry said the training exercises with Wagner were aimed at improving the countrys military security in the current geopolitical situation.Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, served as a staging ground for Russias 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has described Wagners combat experience in Ukraine which culminated in the costly capture of Bakhmut as invaluable.Lukashenko arranged last month for Wagners exile in Belarus in exchange for the Kremlin dropping criminal mutiny charges against its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.