What occurs to Russia’s Wagner Group after the demise of its chief Yevgeny Prigozhin? Greater than a month on, we’d have a solution. The mercenary group reportedly has a brand new boss. His identify is Andrei Troshev and he’s dubbed the “Grey Hair” warlord.
Troshev reportedly met Russian president Valdimir Putin on Thursday night time.
So what occurred within the assembly? And what can we find out about Troshev? We clarify.
What did Putin and Troshev focus on?
Putin met Troshev, a founding member and govt director of the Wagner Group, together with Russia’s deputy defence minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov on Thursday night time. The Russian president has tasked the previous aide of Prigozhin to supervise volunteer fighter models in Ukraine, in response to a Kremlin assertion on Friday, studies information company AFP.
“At the last meeting we talked about you overseeing the formation of volunteer units that can carry out various tasks, first and foremost of course in the zone of the special military operation,” Putin was quoted as saying to Troshev, referring to struggle in Ukraine.
The assembly underlined the combination of Wagner fighters into Russia’s common army. It’s seen because the Kremlin’s try to point out that the state had now gained management of the mercenary group after the aborted mutiny by Prigozhin.
Putin and Troshev spoke about how “volunteer units that can perform various combat tasks, above all, 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 mentioned. “You know what it is, how it is done, you know about the issues that need to be resolved in advance so that the combat work goes in the best and most successful way,” in response to a report in Reuters. Putin additionally mentioned that he needed to discuss social help for these concerned within the combating.
The assembly happened within the Kremlin and was proven on Russian state tv. Troshev was proven listening to Putin, leaning ahead and nodding, pencil in hand. His remarks weren’t proven, the report says.
Who’s Andrei Troshev?
Troshev is a founding member of the Wagner Group and one among its most senior former commanders. He’s identified by his nom de guerre “Sedoi” or “grey hair”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov advised the RIA information company that Troshev now labored on the defence ministry.
In accordance with sanction paperwork revealed by the European Union and France, Sedoy or Sedoi is a name signal for Troshev. He’s a retired Russian colonel and was the chief of employees of the Wagner Group operations in Syria, which backed the Syrian regime, studies CNN.
In accordance with the EU sanctions from December 2021, Troshev is instantly concerned within the army operations of the Wagner Group in Syria. “As such, he provides a crucial contribution to Bashar al-Assad’s war effort and therefore supports and benefits from the Syrian regime,” CNN studies quoting from the doc.
He’s intently related to a number of high-profile figures within the Wagner Group, together with founder Dimitriy Utkin, a former GRU army intelligence officer, and commanders Aleksandr Sergeevich Kuznetsov and Andrey Bogatov, studies NDTV.
Troshev is a former worker of the particular fast response detachment of the Russian inside ministry’s Northwestern Federal District. He’s a struggle veteran who fought in Chechnya and Afghanistan and has been awarded a number of medals for his service – two Orders of the Purple Star, two Orders of Braveness and a medal of the Order of Benefit for the Fatherland, 2nd diploma, in response to studies within the Russian media. In 2016, he was awarded Russia’s highest medal, “Hero of Russia,” for his function within the storming of Palmyra in Syria in opposition to Islamic State militants.
The mercenary chief’s identify additionally seems on the UK’s checklist of economic sanctions targets. It says that he has “supported the Syrian regime, was a member of a militia, and has repressed the civilian population in Syria”.
Troshev was born in April 1953 in Leningrad, within the former Soviet Union, the EU sanctions say. Ukraine additionally imposed sanctions in opposition to him on 26 February 2023.
The commander’s identify to take over Wagner cropped up days after the failed mutiny, as Prigohzin’s destiny remained unclear. In July, Putin had first proposed to the mercenary fighters that Troshev ought to command the personal army group, in response to remarks made to the Kommersant newspaper.
In a gathering reportedly held 5 days after the June rebel, Putin advised Wagner mercenaries that among the many a number of employment selections provided to them, one included persevering with to combat below their direct commander, “Sedoi”. He additionally referred to Troshev as their “real commander all along”.
The president advised Kommersant newspaper that many nodded affirmatively at his suggestion.
What has been Wagner Group as much as for the reason that mutiny?
Wagner is claimed to be one of many world’s most battle-hardened mercenary forces. Nonetheless, its destiny has remained unsure since Prigozhin’s failed 23 June 23 rebellion and his death, precisely two months in a while 23 August in a reasonably mysterious aircraft crash.
The aborted mutiny is extensively regarded to have posed essentially the most critical inner problem to Putin for many years. Prigozhin mentioned that the mutiny was not geared toward toppling Putin however at settling scores with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the Common Workers Valery Gerasimov, studies Reuters.
After the Wagner boss’s demise, Putin ordered the fighters to signal an oath of allegiance to the Russian state, a step Prigozhin had opposed.
Amid all this, their absence from the Ukraine was not unnoticed. Now the fighters are reportedly again on the battlefield. They look like a number of the greatest throughout the Russian ranks, however the risk remains to be low with out their chief, Kyiv’s army mentioned.
Following the seize of Bakhmut, the Wagner mercenaries pulled again from the entrance strains to stage the rebel. Within the aftermath, they have been both solid into exile in Belarus or provided the chance to signal contracts with the Russian army.
Now round 500 mercenaries have returned to japanese Ukraine and shall be despatched into fight on behalf of Russia, Illya Yevlash, a spokesperson for Kyiv’s army, mentioned on Wednesday, studies Enterprise Insider.
Yevlash advised Ukrainian broadcaster RBC-Ukraine that these fighters got here from Belarus, the place 8,000 mercenaries have been residing in exile and coaching the nation’s army. Now the camp the place they have been staying has been disbanded. Whereas some fighters have been despatched to Africa, the place Wagner has a foothold supporting a number of governments, others have been compelled to signal contracts with the Russian defence ministry, the report says.
Now Putin appears to have reestablished his affect on the mercenary group. Thursday’s extensively reported assembly signifies that what stays of Wagner shall be overseen by Troshev and Russia’s deputy defence minister Yevkurov, who travelled over current months to a number of international locations the place the mercenaries work.
With inputs from companies