Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed a former Wagner Group commander to “focus on creating volunteer units” to fight in the war in Ukraine, a month after the death of mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and other Wagner Group mutineers.
“Last time we met, you said that you would focus on creating volunteer units which will fulfill various combat missions, including in the zone of the special military operation,” Putin told former Prigozhin aide Andrei Troshev. “You know what it is like, how to do it, and what issues should be addressed in advance to ensure the best possible and the most successful fulfillment of combat missions.”
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Their televised meeting seemed to showcase Putin’s authority over the remnants of the paramilitary force in the judgment of Western analysts.
The Wagner group came to prominence under Prigozhin as a key component of the Russian war effort until his abortive march on Moscow in June, but Putin struck a collegial pose towards the Wagner Group veterans who remain alive.
“You maintain contacts with the comrades you fought together with, and you continue to fulfill combat missions now,” the Kremlin chief said. “I would like to say again that social guarantees must be the same for everyone who took part or is taking part in combat missions, regardless of their status.”
That meeting coincided with Putin’s signing of an executive order to conscript another 130,000 Russian men into the military this fall, according to TASS, a Russian state media outlet. His comments to Troshev tend to confirm Ukrainian government assessments that Wagner veterans already have returned to the war, though Kyiv downplayed their current efficacy
“Maybe they thought it would scare our soldiers. In fact, that showed Russia needs new meat for the grinder,” Ukrainian Colonel Serhiy Cherevatyi told Politico’s European affiliate. “I see nothing special in their return. Wagner is no longer a powerful force. Those who returned are far from being in a good fighting mood, as they know what to expect here.”
Their return to the battlefield and the Kremlin would seem to represent an attempt by Putin to show that "he is in charge of the situation and he controls Prigozhin's inner circle,” as a London-based analyst put it.
"The fact that the Kremlin's spokesperson confirmed that Troshev works for the Russian Ministry of Defence demonstrates that we are in a post-Progozhin era where the MOD is taking full control of the so-called special military operation in Ukraine,” Royal United Services Institute associate fellow Natia Seskuria told the BBC.
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Their subordination to the defense ministry is a development that Prigozhin fought to avoid in the final months before his weekend uprising. “They used to call themselves soldiers of fortune, but now they are more like misfortune soldiers,” cracked Cherevatyi, the Ukrainian colonel.
In Putin’s telling, they are patriots, just like all the rest. "We have created the Defender of the Fatherland Foundation,” he told Troshev. “The status of those who fought for and defended the Fatherland does not matter to our country. This is why we will discuss this issue today as well.”