“The Wagner Group does not send an elite force to Ukraine”

The Wagner Group does not send an elite force to Ukraine.

Instead, “all kinds of bullshit” is being recruited, a source told the BBC.

The backbone of the Wagner Group is not involved. He says all sorts of rubbish has been collected, convicts are driving it.

The mercenaries of the Russian private army, the Wagner Group, are notorious for their obnoxious methods on the battlefield.

In late February, the British newspaper The Times and The Independent claimed that 400 Wagnerian soldiers were in Kyiv to capture and kill the city. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. The BBC’s Russian service obtained further information through contacts with mercenaries from the Wagner Group.

On February 28, recruitment of the Ukrainian force reportedly began near the southern Russian city of Krasnodar.

Then a number of restrictions were lifted.

Previously, only Russians were recruited, native-born Russia The border as it looked before 2014. But the mission in Ukraine is also recruiting residents of occupied Crimea and in the self-proclaimed region. DonetskAnd the LuhanskRepublics.

They were not questioned before, since it was then considered that there might be Ukrainian saboteurs among them.

Another change is that foreigners can get work. Only the ban on the employment of Georgian citizens remained.

“You’re the one who got fired – contact us”

Nowadays, there is no impediment to employment due to your debts, previous convictions or not having a passport. Such people have never asked questions before.

Chat for Wagner member states, among others:

– You who previously had problems with our appointment – Contact us. You were fired for a reason – contact us. We invite you for a walk to cook fat.

According to BBC Russian Services, the backbone of the Wagner Group – experienced warriors – should not be used in Ukraine. Instead, they continued to implement previously signed contracts for operations in African countries.

“All Kinds of Nonsense”

The Ukrainian force is being recruited at the Molkino training ground near Krasnodar. A mercenary who was there told the BBC:

– They recruit anyone. Not Wagner from there, but all kinds of bullshit. But I do not know where they were sent, at least they were not seen in the Luhansk Republic.

Another source told the BBC that Wagner veterans were active in the Kharkiv region a few weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, led by Russian officers from the GRU. According to the source, Wagner veterans were said to have received $2,100 for a month’s work and then went home.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not answer BBC questions about whether it was true that GRU officers commanded the Wagner Force in Ukraine or whether it was true that the Wagner Group was recruiting mercenaries in Molkino to send them to Ukraine.