Putin’s shadow army
Great Britain: “Wagner group” fighting in eastern Ukraine
03/29/2022 02:23 am
The right-wing extremist mercenary group “Group Wagner” officially has nothing to do with the Kremlin. International secret services see it very differently. The British Ministry of Defense assumes that combatants from the private military company will be deployed in eastern Ukraine.
According to information from British secret services, mercenaries from the private Russian security company “Group Wagner” have been transferred to eastern Ukraine. More than 1,000 mercenaries, including senior leaders of the organization, are believed to have been sent on combat missions, according to an update released by the UK Ministry of Defense late Monday night, citing intelligence information.
Russia’s “shadow army” is associated with crisis regions such as Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and, most recently, Mali. There is also evidence that Wagner combatants were already active in the Donbass after the annexation of Crimea. Heavy casualties in Ukraine and the stalled invasion have most likely forced Russia to reprioritize Wagner personnel at the expense of operations in Africa and Syria, the UK MoD writes.
Russia announced on Friday that it intends to focus on the “liberation of Donbass” in the Ukraine war. The government in Kyiv therefore fears that the situation in Mariupol and in the east of the country will deteriorate. According to Western officials, Russian troops will meet “the best equipped and trained Ukrainian forces” there.
The Kremlin denies any connection to the “Wagner Group”. The mercenaries of the private military company with a right-wing extremist background are accused of serious violations of human rights, including torture and targeted killings. The European Union therefore imposed sanctions on the Wagner Group last December.