New Wagner leader confirms group’s merger with national guard
THE new leader of the Wagner group has appeared in a video confirming the mercenaries’ integration with Russia’s national guard.
Anton Yelizarov said that Wagner was “working for the good of the country”, in his first public appearance since the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the group’s former owner.
“We are building a camp, so that the new units [a volunteer unit]) that will be formed – which will become part of the volunteer corps of Russia’s national guard [Rosgvardiya] – can arrive and settle,” Mr Yelizarov, who goes by the call sign “Lotus”, said.
British intelligence officials said that Wagner’s new base – which is known as the “Cossack Camps” – was “almost certainly” in Rostov-on-don, the southern Russian town that was once occupied by the group during its short-lived coup attempt in June last year.
“The Russian state highly likely authorised the construction of Wagner’s new base and highly likely perceives that by subordinating Wagner to Rosgvardiya, it has removed any potential threat Wagner might pose to Russia’s regime security,” the British Ministry of Defence said yesterday in its daily intelligence update.
“Rosgvardiya is likely preparing a new volunteer corps formation of experienced Wagner personnel to reinforce Russia’s war effort in Ukraine and expand Russian influence in Africa,” the MOD added.
The paramilitary group’s fighters left Ukraine for Belarus to train the Russian protectorates’ armed forces in July last year as part of a deal to end the armed uprising led by Prigozhin. A private jet carrying the 62- year- old warlord crashed on a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg a month later, killing him and his right-hand man, Dmitry Utkin.
Shortly after their deaths, unconfirmed Russian reports said that Mr Yelizarov, a former deputy of Utkin, who had commanded Wagner operations in Bakhmut, had taken over control of the outfit.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, had also ordered the group’s fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to the Russian state – a move intended to seize its fighting capabilities and business operations in Africa.
Mr Yelizarov is a seasoned veteran of Wagner’s campaigns in Ukraine, Syria, Mali and the Central African Republic.
He was previously sanctioned by the European Union for leading a Wagner unit that was responsible for the capture of the town of Soledar, near Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, in January last year.
‘By subordinating Wagner to Rosgvardiya, [Russia] has removed any potential threat Wagner might pose’