Russian mercenaries help rebels seize oilfields

Hundreds of mercenaries linked to Russian military intelligence have been backing the military commander of Libya’s breakaway eastern half, The Daily Telegraph has learnt, as Moscow further expands its presence in Africa.

The Russian private military company Wagner Group has been supporting Khalifa Haftar with 300 personnel in Benghazi, and has supplied his Libyan National Army with artillery, tanks, drones and ammunition, a Whitehall source said.

A source close to the Libyan Russian Oil & Gas Joint Company, started in Benghazi in April, told The Daily Telegraph that ‘‘lots of Wagner fighters went [to Libya], and there are rumours that military personnel also went there’’.

The illegal contractors are ‘‘almost interchangeable with the GRU’’, whose agents are accused of poisoning Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, the Whitehall source said. ‘‘They are trying to secure the deep-water ports of Tobruk and Derna for the Russian fleet’’ and also ‘‘could control the flow of oil to southern Europe’’ if they take over Libya’s energy industry, the source added.

Haftar’s Libyan National Army has been seizing oilfields since January.

The Wagner Group previously fought alongside Kremlin allies in eastern Ukraine and Syria and is linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a restaurant and catering magnate known as ‘‘Putin’s chef’’, who was sanctioned by the United States after his online ‘‘troll farm’’ interfered in the 2016 election.

Prigozhin was filmed with Haftar and Russia’s defence minister during talks in November. Flight-tracking data showed a private jet linked to Prigozhin repeatedly came on the radar heading to or from Libya.

Yevgeny Shabayev, who has been campaigning to legalise private military companies in Russia, said he had been told that Wagner fighters were operating in Libya. He claimed they were involved in drug and people smuggling.

The Russian defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment. – Telegraph Group