Russians form new elite mercenary group

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Since the beginning of the war, the Wagner mercenaries have played an important role for the Russian forces in Ukraine. After their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin (61) spent weeks criticizing the Russian army and falling out of favour, he announced that he would “go back to Africa”.

Now a new Russian elite mercenary group is making a name for itself. As the German “Tagesspiegel”, based on the independent Russian research portal “iStories”, reports, they should form on the border with Crimea near Kherson and be called convoy.

Prigozhin’s right hand

Moreover, the founder would be no stranger: it is Sergei Aksyonov (50), the ‘prime minister’ in the ‘autonomous Republic of Crimea’, as Russia calls the illegally annexed peninsula. There is also a close connection between the Wagner group and Convoy: their leader is said to be Prigozhin’s right-hand man Konstantin Pikalow.

The elite unit operates a telegram channel and currently has 300 mercenaries. They were “armed to the teeth,” the portal “iStories” quotes a Russian journalist who was allegedly at the convoy’s training ground. There is even talk of T-80 and T-90 main battle tanks.

Whether this is just Russian propaganda cannot be verified at the moment. However, their statements match the descriptions of a former convoy mercenary with whom the investigative medium “iStories” spoke. They had everything, he said: “Body armor, helmets, goggles, gloves, balaclavas, backpacks”. (mel)

Source: Blick