Russian secret services set up new private military company to oust Wagner mercenaries – General Staff

Thursday, 23 February 2023, 11:32

The Russian military leadership is putting a lot of effort into establishing control over private military companies and ousting the Wagner Group and its owner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, from the media landscape.

Source: Oleksii Hromov, Deputy Head of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, at a briefing

Quote from Hromov: "The Russian Ministry of Defence is trying to oust Prigozhin from the information space for good. This has pushed them to set up other private military companies, in particular, the Yastreb ["Hawk" – ed.] private military company, which is closely affiliated with the Russian Federal Security Service."

Details: According to Hromov, in order to establish control over the private military companies and other paramilitary formations, the Russian military is seeking to take control of the supply of weapons, military equipment and food to volunteer formations.

The same applies to medical assistance. In particular, the Russian government has already extended the coverage of the military medical examination to apply to so-called volunteer formations as well.

Previously: 

  • Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the Wagner Group, recently said that the Russian Ministry of Defence is lying when it claims that Russian forces on the Bakhmut front have sufficient ammunition. Prigozhin complained that Wagner fighters are receiving less than 20% of the ammunition they had been promised.
  • After Vladimir Putin's speech at a concert in Luzhniki Stadium on 22 February, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s bots [fake social media accounts – ed.] flooded social media with comments demanding that the mercenaries be given shells.
  • Prigozhin has also posted an image of dead Russian mercenaries who he says died on 21 February because the leadership of the regular Russian troops did not give the Wagnerites enough ammunition.

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