Staff Writer
The Wagner mercenary organization from Russia is no longer “participating in any significant capacity in support of combat operations in Ukraine,” according to a Pentagon spokesman.
It happens a few weeks after the group staged a brief rebellion against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Since last year, when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Wagner has engaged in some of the fiercest combat.
But Mr. Putin now seems to be implying that Wagner’s future in Russia is bleak.
When asked whether the squad would be kept as a fighting unit, the president responded, “Wagner does not exist.” The existence of private military organizations is unregulated. It just does not exist.
The “difficult issue” of how to legalize Wagner fighters should be debated in parliament, Mr. Putin continued.
The mercenaries were given the option to join the regular Russian army or travel to Belarus with their commander, Yevgeny Prigozhin, as part of the agreement that put an end to Wagner’s 23–24 June uprising.
But earlier this week, the Kremlin disclosed that on June 29, just days after the mutiny, Mr. Putin had met with Prigozhin and senior Wagner commanders in Moscow.
The US military “at this stage” does not believe Wagner has had a substantial role in the conflict in Ukraine, according to Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder, who made the statement during a briefing on Thursday.
According to the US assessment, “the majority” of the Wagner fighters were still present in parts of the Ukraine that Russia had annexed, Mr. Ryder continued.
In an interview with Kommersant, Mr. Putin provided more details about the gathering of 35 Wagner commanders, including Prigozhin, in the Kremlin.
He claimed to have provided them with a number of “employment options,” including the chance to continue serving under the direction of a senior Wagner figure known by his alias Sedoi – Grey Hair.
“Many [Wagner fighters] were nodding when I was saying this,” Mr. Putin remarked.
The president continued, “Prigozhin, who was seated in front and missed all of this, said after hearing: ‘No, the guys do not agree with this decision.'”
According to BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg in Moscow, the Kremlin appears to try to draw a distinction between the Wagner head and regular Wagner warriors.
This would, he continues, explain the continued efforts made by Russia’s state media to undermine Prigozhin.
Prior to the rebellion, US President Joe Biden warned Prighozin to be cautious about poisoning at a news conference in Finland.
“Only God knows what he’s going to do. Even now, we don’t know who he is or how he is connected to Mr. Putin. I’d watch what I ate if I were him. I would pay attention to my menu, Mr. Biden added.
Speaking in Helsinki during a conference with Nordic leaders, he added that there was no chance Mr. Putin could succeed in his campaign in Ukraine.
The president declared that “he’s already lost that war.”
The president of Russia might eventually “decide it’s not in Russia’s interest, economically, politically, or otherwise, to continue this war,” according to Mr. Biden. I am unable to foresee the specifics of that, though.
He also voiced “hope and expectation” that the current counteroffensive by Ukraine will advance far enough to allow for a negotiated peace agreement.
But more than a month into the well prepared Ukrainian counteroffensive, some Ukrainians and their allies are raising questions about the army’ glacial advance.
Others think that Russia’s defenses would eventually fail, allowing Ukraine to take control of strategically important land and march toward Crimea, the southern peninsula of Ukraine that Russia annexed in 2014.
Ukraine has long pleaded with Western partners for increased military support to strengthen its defenses against the Russian incursion.
At this week’s G7 conference in Lithuania, it did not obtain a concrete timetable for joining NATO, but it did win a long-term security framework to assist defend against Russian aggression.
Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the commander of the Ukrainian army, told US channel CNN on Thursday that the military had received the first shipment of cluster munitions that had been promised by the US in a contentious move.
He emphasized that they will change the situation for Ukraine on the front lines. “We just got them, we haven’t used them yet, but they can radically change [the battlefield],” Mr. Tarnavskyi claimed.
