Putin discusses Ukraine war with top Wagner commander Troshev

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin was shown on Friday meeting with one of the former top commanders of the mercenary group Wagner and discussing how best to use “volunteer units” in the Ukraine war.

The meeting underscored the Kremlin’s attempt to show that the state had gained control over the mercenary group after a failed mutiny in June by Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died along with other top commanders in a plane crash in August.

Just days after the Wagner mutiny, Putin offered the mercenaries the chance to continue fighting, but suggested that the commander Andrei Troshev will replace Prigozhin, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

The Kremlin said Putin had met Troshev, known by his nom de guerre “Sedoi” – or “gray hair” – and Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who sat closest to Putin, on Thursday evening .

Addressing Troshev, Putin said they had talked about “volunteer units that can perform various combat tasks, especially, of course, in the zone of the special military operation.”

“You yourself have been fighting in such a unit for more than a year,” Putin said. “You know what it is, how it is done, you know the issues that must be resolved in advance so that combat work can be carried out in the best and most successful way.”

Putin also said he wanted to talk about social support for those participating in the fighting. The meeting took place in the Kremlin and was broadcast on state television.

Troshev was shown listening to Putin, leaning forward and nodding, pencil in hand. His comments were not shown.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the RIA news agency that Troshev now worked in the Defense Ministry.

The fate of Wagner, one of the world’s most battle-hardened mercenary forces, has been unclear since Prigozhin’s failed mutiny on June 23 and his death on August 23.

The aborted mutiny is widely considered to have posed the most serious domestic challenge to Putin – and the Russian state – in decades. Prigozhin said the mutiny was not aimed at overthrowing Putin but rather at settling scores with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

After Prigozhin’s death, Putin ordered Wagner’s fighters to sign an oath of loyalty to the Russian state, a move Prigozhin had opposed.

The meeting with Putin seems to indicate that what is left of Wagner will now be overseen by Troshev and Yevkurov, who has traveled in recent months to several countries where mercenaries work.

A decorated veteran of Russia’s wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya and former commander of the Interior Ministry’s quick reaction force SOBR, Troshev He is from St. Petersburg, Putin’s hometown, and has been photographed with the president.

He received Russia’s highest medal, Hero of Russia, in 2016 for the assault on Palmyra, Syria, against Islamic State militants.

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