Russian President Vladimir Putin has tasked a former aide to Wagner’s late boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, with overseeing volunteer fighter units in Ukraine, according to a Kremlin report. statement on Friday.
“At the last meeting we talked that you would supervise the formation of volunteer units that can carry out various tasks, first of all, of course, in the zone of the special military operation,” Putin told Wagner commander Andrei Troshev . , known by the nom de guerre of him “Sedoi” (“Gray Hair”).
The meeting, also attended by Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, underlined the integration of fighters from the mercenary group into Russia’s regular army following the aborted Prigozhin mutiny in June.
Troshev, a retired colonel, hails from Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg and is a decorated veteran of the Kremlin’s military campaigns in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria.
He was one of the leaders of the Wagner Group in Syria, for which the EU included him on its sanctions list in December 2021.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said later on Friday. said journalists that Troshev now “works in the Ministry of Defense.”
In June, Prigzohin openly defied the Russian military high command by leading a brief mutiny with his fighters after Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had ordered “volunteer detachments” to sign contracts with the army.
Prigozhin ended the rebellion after apparently reaching an agreement with the Kremlin through Belarusian mediation, but did not face any criminal proceedings.
The private military chief died along with nine other people when a plane flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed on August 23.
Updated with Peskov’s comments.
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