Putin tasks ex-Wagner commander to lead combat units in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin put one of the former top commanders of the Wagner mercenary group, whose chief died in a plane crash after leading an aborted mutiny against Moscow’s military leadership, in charge of volunteer combat units in Ukraine.

Putin met with Andrei Troshev and Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov to discuss the units and social support for fighters, according to a transcript posted on the Kremlin’s website Friday. The volunteer groups will carry out “various combat tasks, first of all, of course, in the special military operation zone,” Putin said.

The Kremlin moved to give the Defense Ministry control the Wagner group and its sprawling operations across African and the Middle East after the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and many of his top commanders died in airplane crash last month. Yevkurov visited several African countries this month.

Days after the Wagner mutiny ended in June, Putin met with Prigozhin and his top aides, offering them to continue fighting under Troshev, whom he referring by the call sign Sedoi, or “gray-haired,” according to the Kommersant newspaper. Prigozhin said they wouldn’t follow others, while the men behind him showed they would, the newspaper reported, without citing anyone.

The Institute for the Study of War recently reported that the Defense Ministry is trying to hire former Wagner mercenaries to fight in its war against Ukraine. According to ISW, the fighters have begun to redeploy to the Bakhmut area in Ukraine, which Wagner had helped take earlier this year.