The return of the Wagnerites to Ukraine: what is known

Mercenaries from Yevgeny Prigozhin’s group PMC “Wagner” sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense and return to Ukraine.

They left the territory of Belarus and began to return to the front. The militants will be redeployed individually and in small groups, as part of different units of the Russian army, writes publication “Correspondent”.

This week, CNN released material about the situation in the Donetsk region. The aerial reconnaissance operator of the Code 9.2 unit as part of the 92nd brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with the call sign Grove told American journalists that the Ukrainian military had recorded the presence of Wagner mercenaries in the Bakhmut area. Grove said the militants “quickly changed commanders” and returned to the fight.

The serviceman noted that he considers the appearance of “Wagnerites” on the battlefield in this area “compensation for the shortage of personnel in the Russian army.” The channel’s journalists noted that this is the first confirmation from Ukraine of the return of the “Wagnerites.” Previously, only Russian military public pages wrote about this.

Meanwhile, the Russian publication Interfax reportsthat Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the former head of Wagner, Andrei Troshev, to form new “dobrobats” for the war. The publication refers to Putin’s statement during a meeting with Troshev:

“At the last meeting, we talked about the fact that you will be involved in the formation of volunteer units that can perform various combat missions, primarily, of course, in the zone of a special military operation. … You yourself fought in such a unit for more than a year. You know what this is such as how this is done, you know about the issues that need to be resolved in advance so that combat work goes on in the best and most successful way.”

According to some reports, Troshev oversaw the work of Wagner’s security service, and during the Prigozhin rebellion he refused to rebel and passed information to the FSB. After his meeting with the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov said that Wagner’s representative was already working in the Ministry of Defense.

The conversation between Putin and Troshev was also attended by Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who, according to media reports, is involved in the transfer of Wagner under the control of the Ministry of Defense. That is, most likely, Troshev will command the “Wagnerites” in Ukraine.

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