Vladimir Putin is determined to use the experience of the fighters of the Wagner mercenary group. The president of Russia has tasked one of his former commanders, Andrei Troshev, with organizing volunteer units to fight in Ukraine, according to images of a meeting released this Friday by the Kremlin.
Tróshev, known by the nickname “Sedói” (gray-haired, in Russian), was chief of staff of the Wagner Group. Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov told the Ría Novosti agency that Troshev is already working in the Ministry of Defense.
“At our last meeting we talked that you would take care of the creation of volunteer units capable of carrying out combat missions first and foremost, of course, in the zone of the special military operation,” Putin told Troshev, using the official designation with which in Russia is known about the military intervention against Ukraine that began 19 months ago.
The meeting, which took place on Thursday at the Kremlin headquarters, was also attended by Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who has traveled in recent months to several countries where the Wagnerites work.
The meeting appears to be an attempt by the Kremlin to demonstrate that it is in control of the Wagner Group after the failed mutiny of June 23 and 24. The head of the mercenaries, oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, died along with several of his commanders on August 23 in a plane crash whose causes have not yet been determined.
“You yourself fought for more than a year in that unit. You know what it is, how it is done, you know the problems that must be resolved in advance so that combat work is resolved in the best and most successful way,” Putin said. .
A former colonel in the Russian Army, Troshev is a decorated veteran of the Afghanistan and Chechnya wars and former commander of the Interior Ministry’s rapid reaction force SOBR. In 2016 he was awarded the highest Russian medal, Hero of Russia, for the assault on Palmyra, in Syria, against Islamic State militants. Like Putin and Prigozhin, he is a native of St. Petersburg.
The Russian president also spoke about social guarantees for those participating in combat missions. He pointed out that the Defenders of the Homeland foundation has been created, in charge of helping veterans and families of deceased veterans. “Regardless of the status of each person who performs or has performed combat missions, social guarantees must be absolutely the same for everyone. For the country, for the homeland, the status of a person who fought and defended the homeland is indifferent” Putin said, quoted by the Kremlin press service.
A few days after the Wagner mutiny, Putin offered the mercenaries the opportunity to continue fighting, but suggested that commander Andrei Troshev take over from Prigozhin, the Russian newspaper Kommersant has reported. According to the RBK newspaper, many fighters nodded in agreement after the proposal. But Prigozhin, who for years was considered close to Putin and was also attending that meeting, said: “No, the guys don’t agree with that decision.”
The rebellion of Prigozhin and his men, in the middle of the war with Ukraine, was the most serious internal challenge that Putin has faced since he assumed power in Russia, on the last day of 1999. According to the mercenary leader, his objective was not to overthrow to Putin, but to behead the Ministry of Defense, since he requested the arrest of the minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Valeri Gerasimov.
Following Prigozhin’s death, Putin ordered Wagner’s fighters to sign an oath of loyalty to the Russian state, a move Prigozhin had previously opposed.
