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Tag: Wagner

  • Russia’s Wagner recovers bodies of mercenaries killed in Mali

    Russia’s Wagner recovers bodies of mercenaries killed in Mali

    Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said that its fighters had recovered the bodies of its mercenaries killed in a July battle with Tuareg rebels and Islamists during a desert sandstorm in Mali.

    Mali, where military authorities seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, is battling a years-long Islamist insurgency.

    Wagner said in July that it took heavy losses in the battle but has given few details.

    “An operation was successfully completed to return the bodies of our brothers, who in July 2024 heroically took up the fight with Islamists many times outnumbered,” Wagner said in a rare statement on Telegram late on Tuesday.

    The loss of the battle in July illustrated the dangers faced by Russian mercenary forces working for military juntas, which are struggling to contain separatists and powerful offshoots of Islamic State and Al Qaeda across the arid Sahel region in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.

    Wagner said its fighters had passed through a desert area near Tinzaouaten in north Mali that was “teeming with Azawad militants”.

    “The bodies of our fallen brothers will return to the homeland,” Wagner said.

    “We do not leave our own, and all of them – dead or alive – will be returned home,” it added.

  • BREAKING: Wagner boss, Prigozhin, feared dead in plane crash

    BREAKING: Wagner boss, Prigozhin, feared dead in plane crash

    The chief of Russian mercenary group, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is believed to have been killed in a plane crash, Russian state media reported Wednesday.

    The aircraft, a business jet, crashed in the Tver region northwest of Moscow, with all 10 people onboard killed, according to Russian authorities.

    While Russian officials said that Prigozhin was on the passenger list, it was not immediately clear if he was in the aircraft

    “An investigation of the Embraer plane crash that happened in the Tver Region this evening was initiated. According to the passenger list, first and last name of Yevgeny Prigozhin was included in this list,” Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport said in a statement.

    The plane was flying from Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow to St. Petersburg, state news agency Tass reported, according to a Google translation.

    The Russian Ministry of Emergency Services wrote on its Telegram account: “In the Tver region, near the village of Kuzhenkino, a private Embraer Legacy aircraft crashed while flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg. There were 10 people on board, including 3 crew members.”

    “According to preliminary information, all on board were killed. EMERCOM of Russia is conducting search operations,” the post read, according to a Google translation.

    The 62-year old paramilitary leader, once a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s, led a short-lived mutiny against the Russian government in late June after spending months vocally criticizing his country’s top brass. His forces, known for their particularly violent battlefield tactics, spearheaded a number of battles for Russia on the Ukrainian front.

    An apparent deal was made between Prigozhin and Putin after the aborted coup, which was meant to see the Wagner Group leader and his forces relocate to Belarus, with Prigozhin himself pledging to leave Russia for good. It is unclear why the aircraft he was listed as being on was near Moscow.

  • Wagner takes advantage of situation in Niger – Antony Blinken

    Wagner takes advantage of situation in Niger – Antony Blinken

    Head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken warned in an interview published on Tuesday that Wagner was taking advantage of the instability caused by the coup in Niger, the group of Russian mercenaries having already moved closer to neighbouring Mali.

    The US secretary of state tells the BBC he does not believe Wagner – who initiated a failed rebellion attempt against Moscow in June – was behind the coup that ousted the president elected Mohamed Bazoum from office.

    “I think what happened, and what continues to happen in Niger, was not orchestrated by Russia or Wagner,” Blinken said. “But insofar as they take advantage of it – and this is a repetition of what has happened in other countries, where they have brought only bad things in their wake – it is not a good thing,” he added.

    “Wherever Wagner went: death, destruction, and exploitation followed,” he added.

    Spoke to Nigerien President Bazoum to express our continued efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the current constitutional crisis. The United States reiterates our call for the immediate release of him and his family.

    In Africa, Wagner offers a catalog of services to struggling plans. In Mali, in the Central African Republic, it protects the power in place, offers military training, even legal advice to rewrite the mining code or the Constitution.

    In exchange, the group practices predation and pays itself on local resources, in particular gold mines and other minerals.

    “The whole of the central Sahel region could come under Russian influence via the Wagner group whose brutal terrorism has been clearly exposed in Ukraine,” wrote President-elect Mohamed Bazoum in an op-ed published Thursday in the Washington Post.

    From the capital Niamey, Antony Blinken ‘s deputy said yesterday that “the people who took this decision, of the coup, understand very well the risks to their sovereignty posed by an invitation from Wagner”.

  • Niger Junta seeks Wagner support as ECOWAS deadline approaches

    Niger Junta seeks Wagner support as ECOWAS deadline approaches

    Niger’s new military junta has asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner as a deadline approaches for it to release the country’s ousted president.

    One the coup leaders General Salifou Mody made the request while visiting neighbouring Mali.

    Niger’s junta faces a 6 August deadline set by the regional bloc known as ECOWAS to release and reinstate the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who has described himself as a hostage.

    Demonstrations have taken place; some in support and some against the coup as international pressure on the junta increases.

    Niger has been seen as the West’s last reliable counterterrorism partner in a region where coups have been common in recent years.

    Foreign nationals have been leaving the country over the past week, mainly on French military aircraft.

    Juntas have rejected former coloniser France and turned towards Russia. Wagner already operates in a handful of African countries, including Mali.

    It remains unclear what the international community’s response would be to Wagner’s involvement in Niger.

    While some in Niger are bracing for a fight, others are trying to cope with travel and economic sanctions imposed by ECOWAS after the coup that have closed land and air borders with ECOWAS countries and suspended commercial and financial transactions with them.

    Residents said the price of goods is rising and there’s limited access to cash.

  • Wagner mutiny: Russian spy chief admits speaking with CIA director

    Wagner mutiny: Russian spy chief admits speaking with CIA director

    The head of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency SVR, Sergey Naryshkin, said he spoke with the director of the CIA days after the brief uprising by Wagner mercenary soldiers.

    The hour-long conversation at the end of June with CIA Director William Burns focused mostly on Ukraine, Naryshkin told Russian state news agency TASS on Wednesday.

    “We have considered and discussed what to do with Ukraine,” he said.

    Russia has been waging a full-scale war in Ukraine since February 2022.

    The U.S. has been the leading supporter of Ukraine throughout the war, supplying the country with intelligence as well as billions of dollars worth of weapons.

    Naryshkin told TASS that conditions for negotiations with Kiev are not yet in place.

    “But of course, negotiations will be possible sooner or later because every conflict, even an armed one, ends with negotiations,” Naryshkin said.

    “However, the conditions for this are not yet ripe,” he said.

    During the conversation with Burns, he also answered questions about the “events” on June 24, Naryshkin said.

    On that day, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had his troops occupied the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and sent a military column marching toward Moscow.

  • Putin accuses Wagner mercenaries of treason, vows to punish takeover of Russia

    Putin accuses Wagner mercenaries of treason, vows to punish takeover of Russia

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the armed rebellion, led by Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, is a `stab in the back`

    Putin, in a televised address to the Russians on Saturday, said that necessary orders have been given to the troops to neutralise those who have orchestrated the armed rebellion.

    The president addressed the nation as Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s armed forces declared to have gained control over the Russian city of RostoV and his army continued to ‘march’ towards the capital to oust the military leadership of the country.

    Putin appeals for ‘unity’, says won’t allow civil war
    “I appeal to the citizens of Russia, to the personnel of the Armed Forces, law enforcement agencies and special services, to the soldiers and commanders who are now fighting in their combat positions, repelling enemy attacks – they are doing it heroically. I know. Today, I once again spoke with the commanders of all directions. I also appeal to those who, by deceit or threats, were dragged into a criminal adventure, pushed onto the path of a grave crime – an armed rebellion,” Putin said, in his address.

    “This is a battle when the fate of our people is being decided, it requires the unity of all forces, unity, consolidation and responsibility, when everything that weakens us, any strife that our external enemies can use and use to undermine us from the inside must be thrown aside”.

    Putin calls Wagner chief’s actions ‘stab in the back’, ‘betrayal’
    “The actions that split our unity are, in fact, apostasy from our people, from our comrades-in-arms who are now fighting at the front. This is a stab in the back to our country and our people. We will protect both our people and our statehood from any threats, including from internal betrayal, and what we are faced with is precisely betrayal to the cause for which, side by side with our other units and subunits, the fighters and commanders of the Wagner group fought and died,” the Russian president said.

    “I believe that we will save and defend what is dear and sacred to us. Together with our homeland, we will overcome any trials, we will become even stronger. Everyone who deliberately took the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed rebellion, took the path of rebellion and terrorist methods will suffer inevitable punishment, will answer before the law and before our people,” he added.

    The Wagner chief is facing accusations of “incitement to armed rebellion” as he asked Russians to support his 25,000 Wagner fighters against Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. Prigozhin has been charged with armed mutiny and can face up to 20 years of imprisonment, as per TASS.

    “Amid the seriousness of the situation and the threat of escalation of confrontation in the Russian Federation the FSB has opened a criminal case into the fact of a call for an armed rebellion on the part of Yevgeny Prigozhin,” the Federal Security Service’s Public Relations Centre said.

    Russia, which has been engaging with Ukraine in one of the longest wars, is on the brink of civil war and feared a coup as it faced a rebellion from the Wagner group. Amid the escalating situation, an “anti-terrorist operation regime” has been declared in Moscow and all public events have been cancelled.

  • Memphis Depay better on Instagram than on pitch – Wagner

    Memphis Depay better on Instagram than on pitch – Wagner

    Former Bayern Munich striker Sandro Wagner has slammed Barcelona ace Memphis Depay.

    After watching him in Barca’s Champions League defeat at Bayern, Wagner let ripped at the Dutchman.

    Depay sent 44 passes against Bayern and only managed to win 27 percent of his duels against the German record champion.

    “That is far too little if you want to be the number one striker at Barca,” Wagner said critically. “A duel percentage of 27 percent is a monstrosity. Depay is currently stronger on Instagram than on the field.”

    The body language of the 27-year-old Dutchman is also not appealing to Wagner.

    “You can do something about that attitude, that negative, that waving and acting like you’re really cool. I don’t like that about him.”