Wagner fighters begin to hand over their weapons

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Russia’s Wagner Group has begun handing over its arms and heavy equipment as part of a plan to dismantle the paramilitary following its failed insurgency last month, according to the Defense Ministry.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Wagner had handed over more than 2,000 pieces of equipment, including tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and rockets, air defense systems, howitzers and anti-tank weapons.

The deal is part of a deal to dismantle the group after its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin led a mutiny against top Russian military officials for a day in late June. The ministry, without elaborating, said it was already carrying out the transfer as planned.

Wagner, whose men have mostly remained at their bases in eastern Ukraine since the uprising, has not commented on the handover. Prigozhin has said in June that the group was ready to surrender its heavy weapons before the rivalry with the military got out of control.

The first coup attempt in Russia in three decades, Prigozhin’s aborted coup was the biggest blow to President Vladimir Putin nearly a year and a half after his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

As Russia’s war effort declined, Wagner’s long-standing dispute with the Ministry of Defense over money and supplies came into the open. Prigozhin emerged as the leader of a radical faction that began to question Russia’s handling of the war.

When Putin supported Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s efforts to induct Wagner into the regular armed forces, Prigozhin refused and began a “justice march” to remove its leadership.

In a brief uprising, Wagner’s forces captured official buildings in the southern city of Rostov and came within 200 km of Moscow, killing at least 13 Russian soldiers when they shot down a plane and several helicopters. .

Prigozhin then agreed to a deal brokered by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. Under the terms of the agreement, Sardar would relocate to Belarus and raise his army, with the option of signing with the ministry or following him into exile.

Since then, Putin has promoted loyalists such as Shoigu, while cracking down on Russia’s security services amid searches for those who failed to stop Wagner’s insurgency or were privately sympathetic to it.

On Wednesday, a senior lawmaker said that Sergei Surovikin, a general who has not been seen in public since the failed uprising, is “resting.”

Surovikin, the former commander of Russia’s invasion force in Ukraine and one of Prigozhin’s closest allies in the military, was detained amid turmoil in the security services following Wagner’s uprising, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Kremlin and the Defense Ministry have not commented on Surovikin’s whereabouts, while people familiar with the matter said it was unclear whether Surovikin was simply being held for questioning or accused of aiding the rebellion.

According to a video posted on social media to Shot, a news outlet, Andrei Kartapolov, formerly a senior defense ministry official who said he commanded several Wagner covert operations before joining parliament, told reporters on Wednesday that Surovikin was “not available right now”. App Telegram.

According to Lukashenko, at that point, Prigozhin has returned to Russia rather than remain in Belarus.

The Kremlin said this week that Putin held a three-hour meeting with top commanders Prigozhin and Wagner on June 29, five days after the uprising, while the warlord’s private plane was recently spotted on flight-tracking websites between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Have been seen flying. ,

The Defense Department made two oblique references to its disputes with Wagner on Wednesday, indicating that the rivalry is not entirely over.

It states that “dozens” of pieces of equipment were “never used in combat conditions” and that Wagner handed over 2.5 tons of war material, casting doubt on Prigozhin’s claims that Shoigu deliberately deprived his troops of supplies. was depriving

It is unclear how Russia will redistribute the group’s funding, which Putin said amounted to more than $2 billion in the past year alone.

Speaking on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Lithuania on Wednesday, Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace drew attention to the Wagner finances.

The Kremlin “announced that they had stopped paying Wagner, which was remarkable because they pretended they had nothing to do with Wagner”, Wallace said. “If you stop paying mercenaries it usually doesn’t work out well. Mercenaries will not sit and do nothing.

Get free Russian Uprising updates

we will send you one myFT Daily Digest Latest Email Rounding Russian rebellion News every morning.

Russia’s Wagner Group has begun handing over its arms and heavy equipment as part of a plan to dismantle the paramilitary following its failed insurgency last month, according to the Defense Ministry.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Wagner had handed over more than 2,000 pieces of equipment, including tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and rockets, air defense systems, howitzers and anti-tank weapons.

The deal is part of a deal to dismantle the group after its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin led a mutiny against top Russian military officials for a day in late June. The ministry, without elaborating, said it was already carrying out the transfer as planned.

Wagner, whose men have mostly remained at their bases in eastern Ukraine since the uprising, has not commented on the handover. Prigozhin has said in June that the group was ready to surrender its heavy weapons before the rivalry with the military got out of control.

The first coup attempt in Russia in three decades, Prigozhin’s aborted coup was the biggest blow to President Vladimir Putin nearly a year and a half after his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

As Russia’s war effort declined, Wagner’s long-standing dispute with the Ministry of Defense over money and supplies came into the open. Prigozhin emerged as the leader of a radical faction that began to question Russia’s handling of the war.

When Putin supported Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s efforts to induct Wagner into the regular armed forces, Prigozhin refused and began a “justice march” to remove its leadership.

In a brief uprising, Wagner’s forces captured official buildings in the southern city of Rostov and came within 200 km of Moscow, killing at least 13 Russian soldiers when they shot down a plane and several helicopters. .

Prigozhin then agreed to a deal brokered by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. Under the terms of the agreement, Sardar would relocate to Belarus and raise his army, with the option of signing with the ministry or following him into exile.

Since then, Putin has promoted loyalists such as Shoigu, while cracking down on Russia’s security services amid searches for those who failed to stop Wagner’s insurgency or were privately sympathetic to it.

On Wednesday, a senior lawmaker said that Sergei Surovikin, a general who has not been seen in public since the failed uprising, is “resting.”

Surovikin, the former commander of Russia’s invasion force in Ukraine and one of Prigozhin’s closest allies in the military, was detained amid turmoil in the security services following Wagner’s uprising, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Kremlin and the Defense Ministry have not commented on Surovikin’s whereabouts, while people familiar with the matter said it was unclear whether Surovikin was simply being held for questioning or accused of aiding the rebellion.

According to a video posted on social media to Shot, a news outlet, Andrei Kartapolov, formerly a senior defense ministry official who said he commanded several Wagner covert operations before joining parliament, told reporters on Wednesday that Surovikin was “not available right now”. App Telegram.

According to Lukashenko, at that point, Prigozhin has returned to Russia rather than remain in Belarus.

The Kremlin said this week that Putin held a three-hour meeting with top commanders Prigozhin and Wagner on June 29, five days after the uprising, while the warlord’s private plane was recently spotted on flight-tracking websites between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Have been seen flying. ,

The Defense Department made two oblique references to its disputes with Wagner on Wednesday, indicating that the rivalry is not entirely over.

It states that “dozens” of pieces of equipment were “never used in combat conditions” and that Wagner handed over 2.5 tons of war material, casting doubt on Prigozhin’s claims that Shoigu deliberately deprived his troops of supplies. was depriving

It is unclear how Russia will redistribute the group’s funding, which Putin said amounted to more than $2 billion in the past year alone.

Speaking on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Lithuania on Wednesday, Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace drew attention to the Wagner finances.

The Kremlin “announced that they had stopped paying Wagner, which was remarkable because they pretended they had nothing to do with Wagner”, Wallace said. “If you stop paying mercenaries it usually doesn’t work out well. Mercenaries will not sit and do nothing.