Ukrainian Army spokesman Capt. Ilya Yevlash said on Wednesday that about five hundred mercenaries from the infamous Wagner Group have returned to fight for Russia on the battlefield, a month after Wagner’s founders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin were reportedly killed in a highly suspicious plane crash near Moscow.
Yevlash said in a Ukrainian broadcast interview that hundreds of Wagner fighters negotiated contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry so they could return to combat.
“These individuals are indeed among the most well-trained in the Russian army, but they will not become a game-changer,” he predicted.
Yevlash’s account was supported by the deputy communications commander for Ukraine’s eastern forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, who told CNN on Wednesday there were several hundred Wagner troops “in our direction, on the eastern front, in different areas.”
Cherevatyi said Russia brought the Wagner mercenaries back to the front lines because they are “short of everyone there now, so any man is good for them.”
“They came back, they swiftly changed their commanders and returned here,” a Ukrainian drone operator said.
A week earlier, Ukrainian Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavsky, leader of Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces, said “their badges appear here and there” when asked about Wagner’s comeback.
On Saturday, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) published an assessment of the Ukraine war that mentioned Wagner troops returning to the battlefield.
ISW described these Wagner units as “disjointed” and said they were “likely to have a marginal impact on Russian combat capabilities without bringing the full suite of effectiveness Wagner had had as a unitary organization under financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin’s and founder Dmitry Utkin’s leadership.”
A man sits near the grave of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash, as people visit the grave to pay tribute in Saint Petersburg, Russia on August 30, 2023. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
ISW quoted a “Wagner-affiliated source” who said about 500 of the mercenaries, the same number later cited by Ukrainian officials, have “joined a new unspecified organization organized by the former Wagner personnel department head.” Most of these men “refused to participate in the Wagner rebellion on June 24.”
The Wagner Group is regarded as one of the most feared, and most brutally effective, forces fighting for Russia in Ukraine. The group was established as a private military contractor (PMC) by Prigozhin in 2014, even though PMCs are technically illegal in Russia. Prigozhin’s close relationship with President Vladimir Putin, and Putin’s need for highly deniable paramilitary forces to carry out operations like the annexation of Crimea, are credited for papering over this legal technicality.
Members of the Wagner group look from a military vehicle with the sign read as “Brother” in Rostov-on-Don late on June 24, 2023. (Photo by ROMAN ROMOKHOV/AFP via Getty Images)
Wagner reportedly took heavy losses in the fierce fighting around the key Ukrainian city of Bakhmut — Prigozhin said in May 2023 that he lost 20,000 men in that battle, about 20 percent of his 50,000 recruits. Prigozhin became outspokenly, and often obscenely, critical of Russia’s military leadership for making such minimal gains despite the extravagant sacrifice of manpower, especially Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Tensions came to a head on June 23, when Priogzhin led his men on a mutiny he referred to as the “March for Justice.” After seizing control of the city of Rostov-on-Don, he led a column of Wagner fighters to within 120 miles of Moscow before calling off the rebellion, reportedly at the urging of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Prigozhin claimed his mutiny was sparked by Shoigu ordering the dissolution of all Russian PMCs, including Wagner, and urging all mercenary soldiers to sign contracts with the Russian armed forces. According to Prigozhin, Shoigu ordered the shelling of a Wagner camp when its men refused Shoigu’s recruiting order.
Wagner was thrown into worldwide disarray after Prigozhin’s reported death. Between 6,000 and 8,000 of its fighters reportedly sought refuge in Belarus at Lukashenko’s invitation. Ukrainian officials believe the fighters returning to the eastern front are drawn from these Belarusian camps.
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