This is a bodyguard unit that is specifically recruited to defend top Russians, the Kremlin and, most importantly, Putin. They can be deployed to defend Russia from threats, but have lower levels of training and kit.įinally, there is the FSO. There are also roughly 250,000 conscripts under the Russian army’s command. Prigozhin has called on the National Guard to join his rebellion. Other units were routed and in March 2022, Putin sacked the deputy head of the National Guard. It also deployed lightly armed units to support the Russian military’s invasion of Ukraine, but reports said that many of these were decimated in fierce initial fighting. It is supposedly charged with defending Russia’s borders, combating drug trafficking and terrorism, but its competency has already been challenged after pro-Ukrainian Russian forces were able to cross into southern Russia several times this year and attack Russian towns and villages. This has not been possible to confirm, but he certainly had access to thousands of loyal battle-hardened fighters through his Wagner mercenary group. Yevgeny Prigozhin has claimed that he had an army of 25,000 men ready to launch his coup. He said that he ordered the start of an armed rebellion on Friday evening to rid the Russian defence ministry of Mr Shoigu and Gen. He has become a sworn enemy of Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s minister of defence, and also of Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian military, who he accused of incompetence and unnecessarily killing thousands of Russian soldiers in the war in Ukraine. Officially he has also bankrolled it, but it is likely that most of the cash came directly from the Kremlin.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, dubbed Putin’s chef because he once held lucrative Kremlin catering contracts, has led Wagner for most of its existence. Many of these were killed in the battle for Bakhmut as they were reportedly sent in waves against well-dug in Ukrainian positions. In January, the British Ministry of Defence estimated that its total manpower may have peaked at around 50,000 fighters. Wagner recruited from prisons throughout the summer to boost its numbers to a fighting force of around 35,000 fighters.
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