Russia completes receiving military equipment from Wagner: Russian MoD
3 Min Read
The Russian Defense Ministry says its forces have received more than 2,000 pieces of equipment and weapons from Wagner.
-
Members of the Wagner PMC group sit atop a tank in a street in the city of Rostov-on-Don, on June 24, 2023 (AFP)
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that the Russian armed forces have completed receiving weapons and military equipment from the PMC Wagner group.
"The Russian armed forces, in accordance with the plan, are completing the acceptance of weapons and military equipment from units of the Wagner Group,” the Ministry said in a statement.
According to the Russian Ministry, dozens of pieces of Wagner’s military equipment were never used in combat.
"More than 2,000 pieces of equipment and weapons have been transferred," the statement highlighted, adding that the Russian forces also received over 2,500 tonnes of various ammunition and some 20,000 small arms.
Elsewhere, the statement indicated that the equipment received from the Wagner group will be delivered to rear areas, where repair units will carry out maintenance works to prepare it for combat use.
On Tuesday, The Belarusian Defense Ministry announced that Wagner PMC will take part in the training of the Belarusian armed forces.
A couple of days ago, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the head of the Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin and the group's commanders to discuss the June 24 armed mutiny attempt.
"Indeed, the president had such a meeting. He invited 35 people to it. All group commanders and company management, including Prigozhin. This meeting took place in the Kremlin on June 29 and lasted almost three hours," Peskov told a briefing.
The Russian diplomat indicated that the details of the meeting are confidential, but both Putin and Wagner commanders gave an assessment of the June 24 events.
"The only thing we can say is that the president gave an assessment of the company's actions at the front line during the special military operation, and also gave his assessment of the events of June 24," he said.
Peskov added that "Putin listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them further employment options," highlighting that Wagner's commanders told the Russian President that they are his staunch supporters and are ready to continue fighting for Russia.
On the evening of June 23, the Wagner Group took control of an army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a city in southern Russia, and marched toward Moscow the next day. Back then, Prigozhin claimed that his activities were in retaliation for the Russian Defense Ministry's alleged strikes on his group's field camps, but the Ministry denied this.
After talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was acting at the behest of Putin, Prigozhin decided to put an end to the attempted armed mutiny.
