How the Wagner Group reappeared on the battlefield in Ukraine and why Kiev says it “no longer exists”

In May of this year, after a battle that lasted 224 days, the Wagner Group took the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. It was the most resounding victory Russia in the second year of the invasion starting in February 2022. After that, the head of the mercenaries, Evgeny Prigozhin, he withdrew his men and handed over the conquered territory to regular Russian troops. But now that the oligarch is dead, Wagner has returned to Bakhmut, although it is no longer the feared civilian army it once was.

Before dying in a plane crash in Moscow, Evgeny Prigozhin rebelled against the central power in Russia. First, during the final phase of the fighting in Bakhmutrepeatedly complained about the lack of delivery of war material and other logistical elements by the Ministry of Defense, headed by General Sergei Shoiguyour enemy.

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Then, Prigozhin he objected to an ultimatum he gave Shoigu to the mercenaries of Wagner for them to sign their contracts directly with the Ministry of Defense before July 1st if they wanted to continue fighting in Ukraine.

The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, together with his fighters, claims the conquest of Bakhmut. (AFP). (FLYER/)

At the end of June, Prigozhin He did what for many was his death sentence: he led a fleeting Wagner Group rebellion against the Kremlin. The oligarch and hundreds of his men marched to the gates of Moscow, before surrendering and agreeing to self-exile in Moscow. Belarus along with his troops.

It is estimated that the camp set up by the government of Belarus Up to 6,000 mercenaries arrived on its territory. Wagner.

Not much was known about Prigozhin until August 22nd appeared in a video posted on Telegram channels affiliated with his mercenary forces. In the recording, he stated that he was in Africa to recruit men who wanted to work for Wagner on that continent.

Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, appeared in a Telegram video that suggested he was in Africa.

But on Wednesday, August 23, news shocked the world: a private plane crashed in Moscow without leaving any survivors. Russian aviation authorities later confirmed that Prigozhin He was one of 10 people on board.

A body is removed from the spot where the private plane crashed. (Photo: AP).

Since then, public opinion has been wondering what the future of Wagner and how the oligarch’s death could affect Russian operations in Ukraine.

This Wednesday, Ukraine gave clues as to what is happening to him Wagner Group.

Ukrainian Border Guard spokesman Andri Demchenko confirmed that the majority of mercenaries from Wagner who were in Belarus left that country, only 500 would remain.

Some of those who left Belarus are fighting again in eastern Ukrainespecifically in Bakhmut. Others traveled to Africa, while many of them left the group and returned home.

According to the advisor to the Presidency of Ukraine Mijailo Podoliakmercenaries now fight with regular Russian forces in Bakhmut, located in Donetsk province. But They don’t make it like the Wagner unit anymorebut as individuals in direct service to Russian forces after signing their contracts.

According to the EFE agency, the core of Wagner He would have joined the Redut mercenary companies and the Volunteer Corps, both linked to the Russian Ministry of Defense. The rest would be negotiating through their supposed new leader, Anton Yelizárov (known as “Lotus”), with the Russian National Guard about the inclusion of detachments under its orbit.

“The Wagner Group no longer exists”wrote Podoliak on his account on the social network X. “He stopped doing this with the liquidation of Prigozhin and from his right hand, Dmitri Utkin” he added.

“Today there are only ex-soldiers left from this terrorist group who have dispersed in all directions: Africa, civil and criminal life in regions of Russia or a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense to fight in Bakhmut”, Podoliak continued.

Then, Podoliak asked not to attach too much importance to Wagner’s transfer to Bakhmutand assured that the information that has emerged in this regard is a way of covering up the recent loss of the cities of Klishchivka and Andrivka by Russia.

Serhii Cherevatyi, deputy communications commander for Ukrainian troops in the east of the country, confirmed to CNN that fighters from Wagner who returned to Ukraine They now worked for the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“So far, there are several hundred of them heading our way, on the eastern front, in different areas,” Cherevatyi told CNN.

But he also downplayed his return, saying that Russian forces in Ukraine “are now short of everything, so any man will do for them.”

Ukrainian soldiers participating in the counteroffensive near Bakhmut They also told CNN that Wagner had returned to the area.

“Wagner is here too,” a soldier who identified himself as Groove, a drone operator in eastern Mexico, told CNN. Ukraine. “They came back, quickly changed commanders and came back,” he said.

Groove maintained that Wagner’s presence is intended, in part, to compensate for personnel shortages on the Russian side.

Ukrainian members of the OPFOR battalion ride atop an armored vehicle while participating in military training in the Donetsk region on September 26, 2023, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Román PILIPEY/AFP). (ROMAN PILIPEUS/)

On the battlefield, this Thursday the government of Ukraine reported that its troops are advancing on the eastern front of Donetskwhile in the southeast region of Zaporizhzhya The Russian army builds new fortifications around the strategic city of Tokmakaccording to the EFE agency.

“I received reports on the situation at the front, the supply of equipment and ammunition and intelligence information. There is progress in the area of Donetsk”, said the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, without giving further details.

Ukrainian Armed Forces Eastern Group spokesman Ilya Yevlash said soldiers had “success” near the liberated towns of Klishchivka, Odradivka and Shumy, all south of the occupied area. Bakhmut.

Russian troops are trying by all means to regain lost positions around Klishchivka and the neighboring town of Andrivka, attacking and firing “constantly” at these two villages, Yevlash said.

Yevlash also told the newspaper “RBC-Ukraine” that around 500 Wagner fighters are in Bakhmut.

On the southeast front of Zaporizhzhyawhere the Ukrainian counteroffensive was most successful in its almost four months, the legitimate mayor of the occupied city of Melitopol, the Ukrainian Iván Fiódorov, noted on his Telegram account that “the Russians continue to build fortifications”, according to EFE.

Ukrainian troops are trying to advance towards Melitopol from the liberated city of Robotine and Verbove, very close to Russia’s second line of defense.

EFE indicated that before reaching Melitopol they must take the strategic city of Tokmak, located about 30 kilometers to the south, as two roads lead from there: one to that large city occupied by Russia and the other to Berdiansk, a port also controlled by troops. enemies.

The aim is to cut off the land corridor that Russia created at the start of the war and which connects Donbass along the Sea of ​​Azov to southern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula.

But the Russians are not willing to lose Tokmak, so they have built a new fortified area north of the city, on both sides of the road leading to the newly liberated village of Robotine.

The war in Ukraine on September 28, 2023. (AFP).

Source: Elcomercio