The United Kingdom Intelligence services indicated this Friday that “hundreds of combatants previously associated with the Wagner Group” have begun to deploy again in Ukraine, where they fight “for various pro-Russian units.”
“Over the last few weeks, hundreds of fighters formerly associated with the private military company Wagner Group have likely begun to redeploy to Ukraine as individuals and in small groups,” they said.
Thus, they recalled that “the Wagner Group withdrew from combat operations in Ukraine in early June 2023, before the aborted mutiny of June 24 and the subsequent death of Wagner’s owner, Yevgeni Prigozhin and other senior officials in a plane crash on August 23.”
“The exact status of the personnel being redeployed is unclear, but it is likely that they have been transferred to parts of the official forces of the Ministry of Defense and other private military companies,” they stressed, according to a statement published by the Ministry of Defense. British through his account on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter.
Wagner Group mercenaries in Rostov on Don, Russia (REUTERS/Stringer/File)
Finally, they have pointed to the existence of “multiple reports” that “suggest a concentration of veterans of the Wagner Group in the surroundings of Bakhmut.” “His experience is particularly sought after in this sector. “Many will be familiar with the Ukrainian front line and local tactics, having fought over this same terrain last winter,” they explained.
In fact, Vladimir Putin on Thursday demanded that Andrei Troshev, a senior member of the Wagner Group, whom he proposed in July as the new leader of the mercenaries to replace Prigozhin, form “volunteer units” to carry out “combat missions.” within the framework of the invasion of Ukraine, ordered by the head of the Kremlin himself in February 2022.
“At the last meeting we talked about the fact that you would take care of the creation of volunteer units capable of carrying out combat missions, first of all, of course, in the zone of the special military operation,” Putin told Troshev at a meeting held on Thursday which was also attended by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Wagner mercenary group commander Andrei Troshev and Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov in Moscow, Russia. September 28, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS
Putin emphasized Troshev‘s combat experience, stressing that he has the knowledge necessary for units to operate effectively.
“He knows the issues that must be resolved so that the combat effort goes in the best and most successful way possible,” he said.
Likewise, he insisted that all people involved in combat missions must have the same social guarantees, regardless of their status.
“For the country, for the homeland, it does not matter the status in which the person fought to defend the homeland,” Putin stressed.
The spokesperson for the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Ilia Yevlash, assured on Wednesday that the mercenaries of the Wagner Group have returned from Belarus to the occupied areas where they had a presence on the eastern flank, although he assured that they do not pose a threat. important.
For his part, the main advisor to the Presidency of Ukraine, Mijailo Podoliak, contradicted the spokesman for the Armed Forces by assuring that “Wagner no longer exists”, since this group of mercenaries “ended with the liquidation” of Prigozhin and Dimitri Utkin. , also killed in the aforementioned plane crash.
Russian troops are trying by all means to recover lost positions around Klishchivka and the neighboring town of Andrivka (which was also liberated by Ukraine), by raiding and firing “constantly” at these two villages, he noted.
It is in this area of the front where last May the Russian mercenaries of the Wagner Group took control of the city of Bakhmut after a ten-month battle.
After the failed mercenary rebellion at the end of last June, the group of the late Yevgeny Prigozhin was dismantled and the fighters had to subordinate themselves with contracts to the Russian Ministry of Defense or remain in exile in Belarus.
(With information from Europa Press)
