Belarus may now be funding the Wagner Group of mercenaries, the UK's Ministry of Defence has said.
In its latest intelligence update, the MOD says that since Wagner's brief mutiny in June, the "Russian state has acted against some other business interests of Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin".
It adds: "There is a realistic possibility that the Kremlin no longer funds the group.
"If the Russian state no longer pays Wagner, the second most plausible paymasters are the Belarusian authorities."
Such a situation would be a "significant and potentially unwelcome drain on modest Belarusian resources", it adds.
