The Wagner Group is back in Ukraine “Historically extraordinary step”: immunity of AfD politicians is lifted

Pavl Prigozhin promised. The young man, who took over the management of the Wagner Group after the death of his father Yevgeny, stated on his Telegram account on October 2:

He adopted the Kremlin’s rhetoric and described the government in Kiev as “neo-Nazis.” He also promised that the mercenaries would return to Ukraine – this now appears to be a fact, as several sources report.

Musicians, as the mercenaries are also called, are said to be stationed in the area of ​​Avdiivka, a small town near Donetsk that has been the scene of intense fighting for months. The commander of the Arbat battalion, which is affiliated with the pro-Russian forces in Donbass, claimed in an interview with the DNR News channel that his unit consists almost entirely of former Wagner members.

The commander also said the battalion’s situation was “good but not excellent”, given the heavy losses on the front line. He added that the Wagner fighters fought in other units if necessary. These are mainly drone pilots and electronic warfare specialists.

Cooperation with the Chechens

The Telegram channel Gray Zone, which is close to the Wagner group, also reports that “the militia is back on the battlefield in Ukraine.” And added:

Recruitment into the ranks of the Chechen Kadyrov Regiment has already begun, as confirmed by Commander Apti Alaudinov, who is also the right-hand man of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

Alaudinov said this in an interview with the state news agency Ria Novosti A “large” number of Wagner fighters joined several detachments of Kadyrov’s forces and active in various unspecified sectors of the front in Ukraine.

On Sunday, Ramzan Kadyrov confirmed the news, writing on Telegram that 170 Wagner fighters had joined the regiment. The troops “have extensive experience in military operations in the Donbass and Ukraine,” the Chechen leader said. He adds:

To support his claim, Kadyrov posted a video on his Telegram channel showing a Chechen commander shaking hands with several men in combat gear wearing the group’s distinctive skull-and-crosses insignia.

New leadership

These were the first reports of Wagner’s presence in Ukraine in several months. The armed group began leaving the country after capturing the city of Bakhmut on May 20. Two weeks after the uprising, the Pentagon declared that the mercenaries were no longer fighting in Ukraine “to any significant degree.”

However, compared to the situation before the Wagner mutiny (and the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin) there is a big difference: Both the separatist Arbat Battalion and the Chechen Kadyrov Regiment are part of the regular Russian armyas the American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) states.

In other words: Wagner is no longer a private militia, but was taken over by the Russian army. The group, or at least its remaining members, now obey the Ministry of Defense – the same ministry against which Yevgeny Prigozhin directed his rebellion.

The merger of Wagner and the regular army was one of the hypotheses discussed by experts the day after Prigozhin’s death. Three days after his death, Vladimir Putin signed a decree requiring members of paramilitary groups to declare their loyalty to Russia in the form of an oath, just like the regular army.

Although the Wagner group was not explicitly mentioned in the decree, it clearly targeted its fighters, Ukrainian scientist Petro Burkovskyi told the BBC: “Either you take the oath and keep your weapons, or you give up your weapons and you go to jail. “

Different factions

It remains to be seen whether in this new constellation the Wagner group will be able to regain the influence it had acquired in Ukraine. During the Battle of Bakhmut, the militia gradually developed into a ‘quasi-independent parallel military structure’, according to the then ISW. This is now a thing of the past, the think tank says today:

The former members of the militia “will not have the strength that the Wagner group derived from its status as a unified organization under a clear and unified command,” the ISW added. However, the Wagner fighters can still pose a threat to the Ukrainian armed forces “by strengthening the new units into which they are integrated.”