The head of the mercenary group Wagner proposed this Monday to build a 30-kilometer-wide security strip on the Russian-Ukrainian border, as part of a plan to protect Russian border areas from enemy attacks.
“Create a security zone 30 kilometers wide along the Russian border, in which volunteers of the people’s militia have the right to move and use their weapons while carrying out their missions”defended Yevgeny Prigozhin in a letter addressed to the Ministry of Defense of Russia.
The head of the mercenary group decided to make the letter public on his social media account. telegramafter the Ministry of Defense refused to accept it.
Prigozhin explained that the proposal came about after a series of meetings between the Wagner group and representatives of the territorial defense of the border regions with Ukraine, which took place in training zones of Russian militias.
According to the leader of the paramilitary group, the Russian Defense Ministry does not have enough troops to protect the border with Ukraine – which has an extension of 540 kilometers in the Belgorod region alone – because it would have to have 33 divisions with a total of 198,000 to do so. troops, something impossible without a new mobilization.
The head of the Wagner group acknowledged that Belgorod – one of the hardest hit areas – has enough troops to guarantee its defense and proposed to form territorial defense units, which would be included in the reserve troops of the Ministry of Defense and having the same rights of soldiers fighting in the Ukrainian campaign.
In the same message, Prigozhin also suggested that the supply and equipment of these units would be the responsibility of regional and local governments, with the Ministry of Defense guaranteeing the supply of weapons and ammunition necessary for border protection.
According to the head of the Wagner group, these units will have to be created not only in Belgorod, but also in the Kursk, Briansk, Voronezh and Rostov regions, all on the border with Ukraine.
Attacks and raids by groups of Ukrainian “saboteurs” on Russian territory have increased significantly, especially after the raid that took place last week and was claimed by two groups of Russian militias fighting on the side of Kiev: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Legion. of Freedom.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, all participants in that raid were killed by Russian troops, which these groups denied.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: DN
