Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group have deployed in eastern Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defense said on Monday, which estimates that more than 1,000 fighters from the sulphurous paramilitary company might be brought to fight in the country.
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“The Wagner Group’s private Russian military company has deployed in eastern Ukraine,” the ministry said in a status update posted on its Twitter account.
“They should deploy over 1,000 mercenaries, including ISIS officials, to carry out combat operations,” it added.
Reputed to be close to Vladimir Putin, the Wagner group and its paramilitaries are suspected of abuses in Mali, Libya and even Syria.
“Due to heavy casualties and a largely stalled invasion (of Ukraine), Russia was most likely forced to redeploy its Wagner personnel to Ukraine at the expense of operations in Africa and Syria,” London said.
In mid-March, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Russia had drawn up lists of 40,000 fighters from the Syrian army and allied militias ready to be deployed in Ukraine.
According to a Western official on Friday, Russian forces are focusing their efforts in Ukraine on the Donbass where they face “the best equipped and most trained of Ukrainian forces”.
In response, according to this source, “separatist forces, with reinforcements from Russian forces and personnel from the Wagner group in the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, are trying to surround them”.
The Wagner group is one of 59 Russian companies and personalities targeted Thursday by a new series of sanctions decided by London in reaction to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia at the end of February.
In addition to the paramilitary group, the Russian diamond giant Alrosa or the hydroelectric power station Rushydro were targeted.
More than 1,000 Russian individuals and entities have been placed on the UK sanctions target list.
