Putin and Wagner Group commander Andrey Troshev discuss ‘volunteer formations’ in Kremlin meeting
The Kremlin’s press service has published a transcript of a September 29 meeting between Vladimir Putin, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and Wagner Group commander Andrey Troshev.
According to the Kremlin’s record, Putin began the meeting by addressing Troshev, whose current role in Wagner Group is poorly understood.
Andrey Nikolayevich, I’d like to begin our meeting by speaking with you specifically. At our last meeting, we talked about how you would get to work on forming volunteer units capable of carrying out a variety of combat tasks, primarily, of course, in the special military operation zone.
You yourself have fought in this kind of unit for more than a year. You know what it is, you know how it’s done, and you know which issues need to be solved in advance so that combat operations can proceed as smoothly and successfully as possible.
Troshev was also one of the attendees of a meeting between Putin and several Wagner Group commanders that was held shortly after the formation’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, led an armed rebellion against the Russian Defense Ministry. Putin reported after that meeting that he had offered the mercenaries “several options for employment, including under the leadership of their direct commander with the call sign Sedoy,” referring to Andrey Troshev. The president said that “many of the attendees nodded” in response, but that Prigozhin said that “the guys don’t agree with this decision.”
According to the Telegram channel You’ve Been Listening to Mayak, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Troshev has already begun working with the Russian Defense Ministry.
In late September, Russian pro-war Telegram channels and Ukrainian soldiers reported that Wagner Group had returned to Ukraine.
‘Special military operation’
The Kremlin’s official euphemism for the war in Ukraine