Is Wagner PMC Returning? Fighters From Supposedly Disbanded Group Are Getting Spotted in Ukraine and in Africa
After the long siege of Bakhmut, following by the dramatic and aborted insurrection and finally with Prigozhin’s death in a filmed fiery plane crash in August, the mere mention of the name Wagner carries some weight, some drama.
Whatever your opinion about the outfit, it’s the stuff of legend.
Tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides have lost their lives in Artemovsk/Bakhmut, in what has been widely considered one of the toughest battles since the Second World War – the ‘meat grinder’, the ‘vortex’.
While US and UK officials have, as of late, tried to downplay the strategic importance of Bakhmut (Ukrainian name), deeming it to be merely ‘symbolic’, Ukrainian president previously Zelensky stated that a loss in Bakhmut would mean an open road for Russian forced to attack other important cities in Eastern Ukraine.
As for the symbolic value of Bakhmut, Zelensky called it the ‘the fortress of our morale’, so it’s understandable that he and his Generals may have chosen to defend it ‘to the end’.
It was also announced by Russian MoD that Wagner troops would sign contracts with the Army, and the outfit was supposed to be disbanded.
But now, it appears that the ‘musicians’ are starting to pop up again.
Politico reported:
“Mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group are back fighting on the front line in Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian military official told POLITICO on Wednesday.
Several hundred fighters from the group once ruled by now-dead warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin were spotted fighting in the ranks of different Russian military units on the eastern front, said Colonel Serhiy Cherevatyi.”
After the failed coup/insurrection, Wagner troops were welcomed in Belarus by Alexander Lukashenko, or else deployed to African countries where Russia has interests.
“’Wagnerites were not hiding. Maybe they thought it would scare our soldiers. In fact, that showed Russia needs new meat for the grinder’, said Cherevatyi, deputy commander of Ukraine’s eastern group of troops for strategic communications.”
Ukrainian wiretapping and reconnaissance can confirm that former Wagner forces were back on the Donbas battlefield.
It is reported that fewer than 1,000 Wagner mercenaries remained in Belarus as of September.
“’Currently, 200 of them remain instructors in the special units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of Belarus. The rest are those who do not want to be recruited either to the new PMCs or to the Russian defense ministry’, the resistance center said, citing its sources on the ground.”
Ukrainian fighters had previously confirmed to CNN of Wagner’s presence near Bakhmut.
At the same time, Russian sources also started to report on the reappearance of Wagner forces in the Special Military Operation zone, but surprisingly, not in the Donbas, but south on Kherson Oblast.
Russian Telegram channel Sitrep reported:
“A Number of Sources confirm that Groups of ‘Wagner’ PMC have now arrived in the Combat Zone in the #Kherson region.
Assault squads of the legendary compound are distributed across sectors. Details are not yet known. The information is classified as ‘Secret’.”
Back in Africa, the ‘musicians’ are also active.
Central African republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera declared officially that the personnel of the Wagner PMC, who act as instructors and also take part in combat operations, will remain in the country, in a decision was made after consultations with Moscow.
At the same time, a giant transport plane ‘linked to Wagner army’ crashes in Africa, exactly ‘one month to the day after group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in exploding business jet near Moscow’.
Read more about Wagner and Bakhmut:
VIDEO: “Wagner” Group Soldiers Raise the Russian Flag after Historic Victory in Bakhmut, Ukraine
