Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group becomes a supplier of arms and ammunition to Russia’s Defense Ministry.
MOSCOW – The current whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, remains unclear. However, it has now become known what happened to a large number of the weapons that were in the possession of the mercenary troop. Two and a half weeks after the Wagner group uprising, the mercenaries handed over tens of thousands of weapons, artillery pieces and ammunition to the Russian army.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday in the online service Telegram that there were more than 2,000 guns, 2,500 tons of ammunition and 20,000 small arms. These include T-90 tanks, Grad and Uragan rocket launchers, Pantsir air defense systems and howitzers.
Transfer of arms to Moscow “on schedule and successful”
The Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced that the Russian Armed Forces have successfully completed the takeover on schedule. In a released video, soldiers could be seen inspecting tanks, armored personnel carriers, ammunition boxes, Kalashnikov rifles and mines. The ministry announced that the equipment is now being moved near the front lines, where repair units will carry out necessary maintenance work.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had accepted the handover of the arms to the Russian army after the end of the uprising of his mercenary troupe. Wagner militants had occupied the Russian army headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don in the south-west of the country for several hours during the June 24 uprising and then advanced towards Moscow.
Wagner gear now with Russian Armed Forces
However, the uprising ended on the same day with an agreement that provided for Prigozhin’s departure for Belarus. President Vladimir Putin gave the Wagner fighters the freedom to join the regular army, travel to Belarus or return to civilian life.
So much of the military equipment has now passed into the inventory of the official Russian Armed Forces. For the course of the war in Ukraine, however, it should not play a major role whether Wagner forces or the Russian army use the weapons against Kiev. (skr)