Private army active again?: Wagner mercenaries train with Kadyrov fighters

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The armed men sneak through a forest in camouflage suits, take cover behind sandbags and shoot through the area with their guns. A helicopter circles above the scene. Suddenly a tank rolls up. The Wagner mercenaries are back – but not at the front in Ukraine.

A larger group of fighters has started a joint exercise with the Chechen special unit Achmat. Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov (47) announced this on Telegram on Monday. In a message, Kadyrov expressed his joy that the Chechen Akhmat battalion is now joined by “fighters with excellent combat experience who have proven to be courageous and efficient warriors.” “I am confident that they will live up to their reputation in future fights,” Kadyrov said. The Achmat troops, like the Wagner mercenaries, have already been deployed in the war of aggression in Ukraine.

Is the Wagner group back?

The post included a video with music showing soldiers during combat training. Some men wore Wagner insignias on their uniforms and masks. According to Kadyrov, the training camp included exercises for snipers, machine gunners, engineers, artillerymen and field medics. Kadyrov left unclear how many Wagner mercenaries participated in the training and whether they would join the Chechen forces upon completion of the maneuver.

At the same time, reports from various Russian media reported that the Wagner group would reportedly once again look for recruits in the Russian cities of Perm and Novosibirsk as a unit of the Russian National Guard. The leader of the unit would be Pavel Prigoshin (25), son of the late Wagner founder Yevgeni Prigoschin (†62).

Putin’s bizarre grenade theory

Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash in August after provoking an uprising against Russia’s military leadership in June. The uprising caused Prigozhin to fall out of favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin (71). The cause of the crash was never investigated by independent international experts. Russia rejects this.

In early October, Putin offered a bizarre explanation for the death of his former companion. The Kremlin chief claimed that the Wagner members on board got drunk during the flight and handled grenades. These exploded and caused the plane to crash.

Source: Blick