‘No need for new mobilisation to replace Wagner’, says top Russian official
There is no need for further mobilisation in Russia to replace Wagner troops who have left the battlefield in Ukraine, a state media said.
There is no need for further mobilisation in Russia to replace Wagner troops who have left the battlefield in Ukraine after a short-lived mutiny, state media quoted a defence official as saying on Monday.
“There is no threat at all regarding a drop in the combat potential, both in the midterm and long-term perspective,” Andrey Kartapolov, head of the State Duma Defence Committee, was quoted as saying by the state-backed TASS news agency. “At the time of the (attempted) rebellion, there were no Wagner PMC employees at the forefront, they were all in camps. “As for replacing them in the reserve, there is something and someone to replace them with.”
Last month the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, led his mercenaries in a rebellion against Russia’s top military brass in a huge embarrassment for the Kremlin. Mr Prigozhin later abandoned his advance on Moscow and struck a deal with the Kremlin under which he accepted exile in neighbouring Belarus.
After sending troops to Ukraine in February last year, President Vladimir Putin in September ordered a “partial” military call-up to boost regular forces in the first military mobilisation in Russia since World War II. Hundreds of thousands of men have been drafted, while tens of thousands more have fled abroad.
On June 13, before the Wagner rebellion, Mr Putin said there was “no such need” for any additional mobilisation.
The Wagner Group played a key role in the capture of several eastern Ukrainian towns after a mass recruitment drive in Russia.
Mr Putin has insisted that the mutineers did not galvanise support during their rebellion.
A top Russian propagandist on Sunday accused the Wagner boss of going “off the rails” after receiving billions in public funds, as Moscow’s new narrative takes shape in the wake of the brief mutiny.
AFP
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