Bayan News – Ukrainian military officials have announced that hundreds of Wagner Group mercenaries have returned to Russia and are now serving in the war in the eastern part of the country.
According to Reuters, Wagner fighters played a significant role in the occupation of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut following one of the longest and most intense battles in the 19-month-long Russian war against Ukraine in May.
Sergei Chrovati, spokesman for the Eastern Military Command of Russia, stated that during their return, up to several hundred Wagner fighters are in the region. He mentioned that the Wagner fighters are dispersed in different locations, not as a unit, and do not have a significant impact on the battle.
Mykhailo Podoliak, advisor to the President of Ukraine, stated that Wagner no longer has a “foreign presence” and added that they are merely scattered semi-militants of a former terrorist group that has been dispersed.
According to Podoliak, some of the Wagner forces have gone to Africa, some are scattered in Russia, and some have made agreements with the Russian Ministry of Defense and are fighting in Bakhmut.
The advisor to the Ukrainian President emphasized that the recent reports about the return of Wagner forces to the Bakhmut region are intended to divert attention from the news of the Ukrainian army regaining control of two occupied villages from Russian forces.
They left the region after the battle in Bakhmut, and some of them went to Belarus under a previous agreement. This agreement was reached after the Wagner group rebelled against the Kremlin in July, took control of a Russian military headquarters, and advanced towards Moscow.
Since the suspicious death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the commander of Wagner, in the suspicious crash of his private plane on August 23, the Kremlin has been seeking to firmly control this group of mercenaries through state control.
