Russian conscripts 'eager' to surrender to Ukraine says Prystaiko
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Various reports over the last eight months have suggested that the Russian military is suffering from low morale and is ill-equipped to fight in Ukraine. This has been reflected in the advances that Ukrainian forces have made in regions near Kharkiv and Kherson in recent weeks. Russian President Vadimir Putin moved to bolster his army by announcing a partial mobilisation last month, but many military experts believe that recruiting untrained people will not do much to thwart Ukraine’s progress.
However, it appears that the Kremlin isn’t just turning to its army and civilian conscripts. Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, it has been helped by a mysterious group of mercenaries from the Wagner Group.
British intelligence believes that there are 1,000 people fighting with the group in support of Russia. They have also helped Putin’s forces in conflicts across the globe, including in Syria and some war-torn African nations.
The Wagner Group, a private military company, is thought to have long had links to the Kremlin. Its name is said to have come from Richard Wagner, who was Adolf Hitler’s favourite composer.
While the group is well known, it doesn’t technically exist from a legal perspective because it is a network of mercenaries rather than one single entity. The Russian government has also denied any links to the group and the fact it exists because private military contractors are against the law in Russia.
But many experts believe groups like Wagner are made illegal under Russian law to give the Kremlin plausible deniability about working with them. While it has offices in the Russian city of St Petersburg, Wagner Group is reportedly based in Argentina.
Expert, Isabella Currie of La Trobe University, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the group is “terrifying”. Dr Socha MacLeod, the chair of the UN working group on mercenaries, added that they “operate in the shadows.”
For years, it was thought that the group was likely created by Russian businessman, Yevgeny Prigozhin. But he has consistently denied any links.
That was until September this year, when Prigozhin admitted to founding the group to help Russia take the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east of Ukraine.
After finally making his involvement with the group public, he said: “I cleaned the old weapons myself, sorted out the bulletproof vests myself, and found specialists who could help me with this.
“From that moment, on May 1, 2014, a group of patriots was born, which later came to be called the Wagner Battalion. I am proud that I was able to defend their right to protect the interests of their country.”
Prigozhin is also known by many as “Putin’s chef” because he owns a catering company that has hosted Putin’s dinners.
The Wagner Group has been linked with a number of operations in Ukraine since the invasion in February. It has been claimed that it may have orchestrated “false flag” attacks to give Russian forces a pretext to carry out assaults of their own.
The mercenaries are also alleged to have committed war crimes, including murder and torture in a village near Kyiv. The Russian military similarly left behind evidence of war crimes after retreating from towns near the Ukrainian capital earlier this year.
Speaking to the BBC, Dr Samuel Ramani, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said that the Wagner Group is now playing an important role to help Russia in eastern Ukraine.
Dr Ramani said: “The Wagner Group played an active role in capturing cities like Popasna and Severodonetsk in Luhansk. Nowadays, it is an informal, unofficial unit of the Russian army, for which no casualties are reported.”
Last month, Prigozhin was filmed recruiting prisoners in the Mari El Republic, a region 450 miles east of Moscow. He promised that “nobody goes back behind bars” if they fight with his group, adding: “If you serve six months (in Wagner), you are free.”
However, he also had a blunt warning: “If you arrive in Ukraine and decide it’s not for you, we will execute you”.
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On Tuesday, Ukraine’s security services claimed to have taken out two groups of mercenaries working with the Wagner Group. They said they were able to locate the bases the group was located in before storming them. Four members of the mercenary, including its commander, were captured and interrogated.
Putin has also been supported militarily by Chechnya, the republic led by Kremlin-ally Ramzan Kadyrov. Chechen soldiers have been fighting alongside the Russian military since the invasion began in February.
Earlier this month, Kadyrov made headlines after he criticised the Russian military’s leadership for its failings during the conflict. He grabbed more attention days later when he vowed to send his sons, aged 14, 15 and 16, to fight against the Ukrainians.
In a statement, he said: “The age of minors should not prevent the training of defenders of our homeland. The grandchildren of the First President of the Chechen Republic, Hero of Russia Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov – Akhmat, Eli and Adam are 16, 15 and 14 years old respectively.
“But their military training began long ago, almost at an early age. It is not enough to know how to shoot. At the base “RUS” they are taught to handle various weapons, to use them at any distance, and the theoretical basics.”
Allowing children under the age of 15 to fight in conflict is a war crime under international law.
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