The return of the Wagner group: Putin takes control of the mercenaries and sends them back to the front line in Ukraine

Wagner group mercenaries are back in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin has been in charge of rebuilding that corporation of paid soldiers, whose future was in question after the death of its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, last August in a dark plane accident.. They are the same mercenaries, but now they are directed by the Kremlin and they no longer use Wagner's name or his insignia.

The Russian president has not wanted to make the same mistakes as in the past and, to avoid rebellions like the one led by Prigozhin himself in July, the renewed Wagner has been restored with men loyal to the Kremlin and under the strict supervision of the omnipresent services of Russian intelligence.

“Russian military intelligence, the GRU, is taking the Wagner group under its control and is directing it in the shadows. It has focused above all on controlling the high command because Prigozhin was a loose verse and Dmitri Utkin, who was the head member of the group and died in the same plane accident, he was a lieutenant colonel of the GRU, but he acted a little on his own,” an expert in military strategy from the Spanish Army explains to 20 Minutos.

“Prigozhin was often a problem for the Kremlin due to his public statements or his videos on Telegram, where he was very active.. Now they have put in people they trust, people from the intelligence services,” he adds.

At the head of the renewed group of ex-Wagnerites is the figure of Andrei Troshev, former colonel of the Russian army and one of the senior commanders of the mercenary company that remained loyal to Putin during the Prigozhin rebellion.. Theirs is the mission of reorganizing the group, purging dissidents against Putin and recruiting new volunteers to fight in Ukraine, as was evident after the meeting held this Wednesday in the Kremlin with the Russian president and Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Evkurov. .

Control of Wagner's remains is essential for Putin because Russia cannot afford to lose that combat force at a decisive moment in the war in Ukraine, when Kiev's counteroffensive is taking the initiative, as the strategist points out. of the Spanish Armed Forces: “The Russian army has problems covering casualties. He was recruiting about 20,000 troops a month, but that figure does not cover casualties on the battlefield or those who end their contract.. In fact, it is already planning a new mobilization of reservists, although it has not yet been announced.”

And he emphasizes that Wagner's mercenaries undoubtedly help to alleviate this lack of soldiers: “We do not know exactly how many troops the Wagner group had, but it is estimated that between 20,000 and 50,000. In addition, it has been gathering very specialized people because many of its mercenaries come from the Russian Special Forces.. “They are human resources that Putin cannot give up.”

They are already fighting in Bakhmut

The reactivation of Wagner, whose mercenaries moved en masse to Belarus after the Prigozhin rebellion, has been rapid because Putin needs them. The Russian president did not want to waste time and has already sent units to the Bakhmut front, which had become a mousetrap for Russian troops.

“In Bakhmut Wagner's mercenaries were replaced by airborne units and elite troops of the Russian army, but they suffered many casualties and the Ukrainians were enveloping them a bit on the southern flank.. By sending Wagner units, Moscow is trying to stabilize that front a little,” explains the Army's high command.

“The Wagners are troops that have a lot of experience in Bakhmut because they spent 13 months fighting in that area and they are also very experienced in urban combat. Putin has sent them to their previous theater of operations to stabilize the situation a little,” he points out.

It is estimated that some 500 mercenaries from Wagner are already fighting in Bakhmut and many of them are now affiliated with the Redut company, another paramilitary company paid by the Kremlin that has been operating in Ukraine for some time under the orders of the Russian GRU.

Maintains the 'private company' sign

The Kremlin has shorted the remains of the Wagner and no longer even tries to hide or disguise its relationship with the mercenaries, as was evident in the meeting held this Wednesday between Putin and Troshev, in the presence of Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek. Evkurov.

But despite being a more than public relationship, the structure of the new group of mercenaries is officially maintained as that of a private company: “It has an advantage for Moscow and that is that they are not soldiers of the Russian Army, but contractors, thus “You can use them anywhere in the world without saying that there is direct Russian involvement.”

“Moscow usually justifies their presence by claiming that they have been hired by the government of whatever country is. It is very good for the Kremlin to keep them as a private force, especially when they have to act in Africa,” says the Spanish military expert.