This was announced by the Russian Ministry of Defense on Wednesday received from the Wagner paramilitary group more than 2,000 military equipment, 2,500 tons of ammunition and 20,000 small armsthanks to the agreement reached after their aborted revolt in June.
“The Russian armed forces, in accordance with the plan, are completing the receipt of weapons and military equipment from the units of the Wagner Group,” the Russian Defense Ministry told Telegram, accompanied by a video showing armored vehicles and artillery pieces.
According to the Russian ministry, the Wagner Group has supplied “more than 2,000 units of equipment and weapons,” including war tanks, multiple missile systems and anti-aircraft missiles, some of them new, according to the Russian agency Interfax.
Moscow authorities spoke of “more than 2,500 tons of various types of ammunition and about 20,000 small arms”. Armored vehicles and battle tanks are transported to training camps.
The mercenaries of the Wagner Group, led by Yevgeni Prigozhin, staged an attempted revolt in late June that was cut short when a military column approached Moscow to depose the military leadership, as a result of mediation by the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.
To avoid criminal prosecution, the paramilitary organization agreed to disarm and hand over its military equipment to the Russian armed forces.
Under the agreement, Prigozhin and some of his men could be transferred to Belarus, or integrated into regular Russian forces, but so far the mercenaries have yet to report to their designated camp in Belarus, and according to a commander of the Wagner group, in an interview with a Russian journalist, quoted by the EFE bureau, Prigozhin offered his soldiers vacations until August.
The Wagner group has been at the forefront since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, and has played a leading role in the capture of Bakhmut, in the province of Donetsk (east), in the longest and bloodiest battle of this war, at the cost of heavy casualties, amid Prigozhin’s open accusations of lack of military support from Moscow.
On June 27, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin admitted that the Wagner Group received about 922 million euros from the Russian state between May 2022 and May 2023.
Source: DN
