Wagner Group and the Proxies - The Projection through the Eurasia

Pentagon acknowledges US contractor presence in Syria for first time

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/04/pentagon-acknowledge-us-contractor-presence-syria-iraq.html#ixzz5IGBAoauR

The US military is using more than 5,500 contractors in the campaign to defeat the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq, the Pentagon revealed in a quarterly report this week that acknowledges the use of contractors in the Syrian war zone for the first time.

The latest figures from US Central Command indicate that 5,508 US and foreign contractors are working alongside US troops in the two combat zones. That’s an increase of 581, or 12%, over January’s numbers, which did not include Syria. About half of the contractors are US citizens, while the rest are local or third-country hires.

The disclosure comes as President Donald Trump has signaled his desire to pull US troops out of Syria “very soon” after the end of the counter-IS mission. The role of contractors in Syria is also under increasing scrutiny after hundreds of Russian contractors died in a battle with US troops and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the oil-rich Deir ez-Zor province, as CIA Director and Secretary of State-designate Mike Pompeo publicly confirmed in his Senate confirmation hearing April 12.

Unlike the Russians, however, the US contractors are mostly focused on supporting the 2,000 US troops in Syria by delivering hot meals, gasoline and other supplies. More than 30% of them support logistics and maintenance, according to the quarterly Pentagon report, and another 27% help with support and construction of US military outposts in the region.

“It’s not the Russian contractor role in Syria, which is … deploying tactical military units of squad company size,” said Peter Singer, a senior fellow and strategist at the New America think tank in Washington. “It’s the old stuff that Halliburton used to do.”

More than 400 “security” contractors are also involved in the fight in both countries, but “you’re not seeing the 163rd private US military group invading a city in Syria,” Singer said. Russian military contractors are also helping to protect oil fields across the country, protecting an industry that represented a quarter of Syria’s government revenue in 2010.

Though previous Defense Department personnel reports in the region hadn’t mentioned a Pentagon contractor presence in Syria, the US Department of Labor acknowledged in a report last year that two contractors were killed and six injured in fiscal year 2017. The Pentagon numbers don’t represent contractors working for other US agencies, such as the State Department, which assists with demining.

The Pentagon’s admission comes after an awkward back-and-forth between Trump and his top military and diplomatic advisers at a National Security Council meeting last week. While the president wants to declare victory on IS and pull out, the Pentagon has asked the commander-in-chief to leave US forces in Syria to prevent insurgent cells from regrouping along Syria’s border with Iraq.

Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of US Central Command, said at a public event last week, “The hard part is in front of us” in the war-torn country. Less than a mile away at the White House, Trump appeared to contradict US pledges to stay in the Syria fight at an open Cabinet meeting after long expressing his frustration over US military spending in the Middle East. The White House also recently announced a $200 million cut in funds earmarked for stabilizing Syria.

Despite their nonkinetic role, some experts say contractors face many of the same dangers as the US troops and Syrian forces who battled Russian mercenaries in February. With IS on the run and multiple US antagonists ready to push out the United States and its allies, civilian personnel risk getting caught in the crossfire.

“I would give America a six-month honeymoon here,” said Joshua Landis, the director of the University of Oklahoma’s Center for Middle East Studies. “Turkey, Syria and Iran are just sitting there, waiting to stick shivs in us.”

Russia's shadowy world of military contractors: independent mercenaries, or working for the Kremlin?

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-russia-mercenaries-20180218-story.html

Stanislav Matveev left his home in the Ural Mountains in September to join a Russian private military company. Five months later, Matveev was dead, killed in a U.S. airstrike on Feb. 7 in eastern Syria.

Matveev's widow, Yelena Matveeva, wants answers from the Kremlin about why her husband is dead. By some accounts, scores of Russian contractors were killed.

"I'd like everyone to know about my husband," she said in an interview with Znak, a Russian news site. "And not only about my husband, but about all the boys who died there so stupidly. Where were they sent to, and why? They didn't even have protection, they were like pigs sent to slaughter!"

But just who sent them? There's no easy answer.

The Ministry of Defense and the Kremlin do not officially associate with the private military companies, but media reports and researchers say they have pieced together enough evidence to suggest that the mercenaries are being employed, or at least directed, by the Russian military. The Kremlin denies this.

Little is known publicly about the military groups and how they operate, but they've gained a higher profile since the Feb. 7 airstrike in Syria. The U.S. said it was responding to an attack by hundreds of forces supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad near the Syrian city of Deir al Zor.

Russian media have reported that at least eight of those killed were Russian mercenaries, though some reports put the death toll at close to 200 — an assertion Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dismissed as "misinformation" from the Western press.

"There were not 400, not 200, not 1,000, and not 10," Zakharova said.

The government has confirmed five, but not eight, deaths, while stressing the men were not members of the Russian armed forces. According to interviews with family members of the eight identified, the mercenaries all were in Syria on contract with a private military company called the Wagner Group.

The company is believed to be organized by Dmitry Utkin, a former Ukrainian citizen who fought in eastern Ukraine on the side of the separatist rebels and later formed the Wagner Group in 2014. The group is named after Utkin's nom de guerre.

Like Utkin, many of the Wagner fighters fought first in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed militias have been waging a separatist movement against Ukrainian forces since 2014.

Wagner has not been tied to reports of Russian meddling in U.S. elections, but investigative journalists at the St. Petersburg, Russia-based Fontanka news website have reported that one of Wagner's sponsors is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Kremlin-connected entrepreneur. Known as "Putin's chef," Prigozhin owns a St. Petersburg internet troll factory.

Both Prigozhin and the troll factory, the Internet Research Agency, were indicted Friday in the United States and charged with illegally using social media platforms to sow political discord in the U.S. Twelve other Russians associated with the troll factory and two Russian companies were also indicted.

The Ukrainian conflict has proven to be a steady source for Wagner's recruitment. According to Russian media, most of the Wagner fighters killed in the U.S. airstrike on Feb. 7 also served at one point with the separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Because private military companies are illegal in Russia, the company is registered in Argentina. Most military analysts estimate there are 2,000 mercenaries in Syria working for Wagner.

Yelena Matveeva said her husband, Stanislav, was home for about a year after fighting in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine before telling her he was leaving on an unspecified mission. She told reporters she knew he had made contact with Wagner representatives while in eastern Ukraine.

Private military companies are not unique to Russia. Such companies provided services to the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Whereas the Americans used mercenaries for security and stabilization after gaining and holding new territory, the Russians use mercenaries to fight the battles themselves, said Michael Kofman, a Russian military and security analyst with the Wilson Center, a think tank in Washington.

The use of mercenaries would help the Kremlin maintain plausible deniability of direct Russian involvement in conflicts, such as in Ukraine, and avoid public accounting for high casualty rates, said Vladimir Frolov, a Russian political analyst.

The Kremlin has denied also Western intelligence accusations that Russian troops have participated in the separatist fighting in the Donbass region.

When fighters of Russian origin have been captured or killed in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin has called them volunteers or enlisted men "on vacation." Military analysts in the West and Russia scoff at that characterization. Frolov said the government is likely coordinating the efforts of mercenaries in Syria as well.

"It is inconceivable for me to think that [the Russian mercenaries in Syria] are not tightly coordinated with the Russian military command," he said. "Somebody supplies all their weapons and combat gear and fire support."

In addition, the Fontanka investigation and other Russian researchers have found evidence that the mercenary groups have a "boot camp" in Russia's southern Krasnodar region at a facility owned and operated by the Ministry of Defense.

"We don't know concretely who is paying them, but they are supported, deployed and moved about by Russian military, so we can draw some conclusions from that," said Kofman.

The way the Kremlin is handling the deaths of the mercenaries is beginning to wear on Russian families whose loved ones have been killed in a war that the Kremlin wants to paint as a low-impact conflict.

"Domestically, this is all bad press, and bad press a month and a half ahead of the election," Kofman said.

Russia has a presidential election on March 18. It is widely expected that Vladimir Putin will win what will be his fourth term as president.

The Russian government's response to mercenaries' deaths has been a stark contrast with that of Maj. Roman Filipov, a pilot buried in Russia a day after the U.S. airstrike.

Rebels previously affiliated with Al Qaeda shot down Filipov's Sukhoi-25 jet in Syria. The major managed to eject from the plane and parachute to the ground. Surrounded by insurgents, Filipov blew himself up with a grenade in order to avoid being captured.

Filipov's story was covered widely on state media. More than 30,000 people attended his funeral. Putin posthumously awarded Filipov the title of Hero of Russia, the country's highest honor.

It's an honor Matveeva and other widows of mercenaries killed on Feb. 7 feel their loved ones deserve. "I want the government to avenge them," she said. "I want the memory of the boys to stay with their wives, so that the children can be proud of their fathers."

In a daily press call this month, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, was asked by a reporter if there would be a day of mourning for the Russians killed in the Feb. 7 airstrike.

"Because of what? I don't get why a mourning period needs to be declared," Peskov said.

Ayres is a special correspondent.

Wagner group became the actor in Syria conflict as Blackwater was in Iraq, it changed the course of warfare and the small combats.

The RMA approached the combination of military theories and hypotesis, in the future of war, but Russians spawned this hypotesis based on observations through the directions of the conflicts in Cold War, combining the technologic capability to the organizational recomendations and human resources, claiming the combination of doctrine, strategy, tactic and technology, spawning a previsible scenario of operations led to a irrevocable change of the conduct of warfare. The adaptatin of new doctrines and, specially, dinamic doctrines, made the capability of Wagner, the most operational actor in the whole scenario.

The information technology, the business doctrines applied to military doctrines and the capability of a private actor use the offshore, the joint venture developing the strategic objective common during the period and the combination of full military capability in from the intelligence to long range combats and airforce, made the Wagner Group the fist in the face of the west.

The Blackwater era is conditioned and the Wagner Group surpassed the previous leadership in the warfare business, becoming one shadow actor, acting throught the borders and with the full capability.

The projection of Russia in Eurasia and Syria was more successful in the conflict that is non-legitimate nor legal, and the protection of Assad government was asseted to the small conflicts fighting, that Wagner Group with the recruitment of local rebels and with the Russian personel, ensuring the success in each small and local conflict.

The full capability of the company and the shrewd performance of the company is confirmed analyzing the New Wars theory by Kaldor. The global change of the conflicts need an actor that combines the performance to act in the most of the scenarios, and the Company Wagner is one of the few companies in the world that can make it possible.

Making possible the combination of the full force in the hybrid scenario, that created a irregular scenario in the total war, and inserted technologic capability, they can act in diverse fronts in a global scenario. This projection is not the PMC but the Russian capital entering, a gathering of international lobbists and investitors and local investitors also the Russian geopolitical projection and influence through the borders of world, places that was before influenced by USA.

According to Mary Kaldor, "New Wars are the wars of the era of globalisation. Typically, they take place in areas where authoritarian states have been greatly weakened as a consequence of opening up to the rest of the world. In such contexts, the distinction between state and non-state, public and private, external and internal, economic and political, and even war and peace are breaking down. Moreover the break down of these binary distinctions is both a cause and a consequence of violence."

Wagner Group, as any other PMC that works in the warfare scenario became actors in the era of the Global Open Market and the decentralization of the power of the government to the investitors, business companies and military personel, to act in the core of the conflict.

...

According to Kaldor, the "Actors: Old wars were fought by the regular armed forces of states. New wars are fought by varying combinations of networks of state and non-state actors – regular armed forces, private security contractors, mercenaries, jihadists, warlords, paramilitaries, etc."

As the actor in Syria conflict, as others, the military personel became a part of the diplomatic relation between the countries, but the combination of military personal with private security companies, local rebels and civilian armed in conflicts, under the contract with the company and the State, legally, acting private to the public interest.

...

"..., it is very difficult to distinguish combatants from civilians. The only figures for which there are accurate statistics are military casualties because these are formally recorded by their governments... But, since many combatants in new wars are police, militia, private contractors, mercenaries, para-militaries or criminals of various kinds, the figures for other military and civilian casualties are very difficult to identify."

This is the question, when the news and media focus on the conflict, the combatants are all in the same level, but when the investigation in the cases, the casualities are involving private personal, and it hurts the legal precepts of international conventions, that makes more difficult to have an investigation of military crimes.

The legal question here is under the what is legal in the New Wars conflicts and what is legal under the contract between the state and the actor.

Proxy actors were common in Russia conflicts, the provocative warfare and the use of dissinformation, also the use of rebels and local radical groups make the capability of disruption of government more possible. Proxies are being the main actors to the super powers and Russia became the main character to act with proxies.

This proxies have being utilizing in small conflicts, insurrections, uprisings, insurgencies and civilian actions, like civil unrest, local movements, extreme ideological movements, parties and pro and against governments to promote propaganda and promote the ideal scenario of action and use tactical groups in advance to the objectives. 

Besides all of that, Wagner Group, as the actor in the Syria Warfare, became the muscle of Putin through the conflict and it makes the Russia proection through Syria very perceptive and captive, showing that the legitimacy of the leadership Russia in Syria and between the main actors in the conflic, as Iran and Turkey, are accurate and acceptable.

According to Mr. Lothar Ibrügger (Germany), General Rapporteur, November 1998, the question of New Wars era and the Revolution in Military Affairs, the information warfare is:

Information warfare is identified as another new warfare area. Although the critical value of information in warfare has been acknowledged since ancient times, warfare nowadays relies on information systems to an unprecedented degree. Information-gathering systems such as reconnaissance and early-warning satellites, a wide variety of manned and unmanned air-based systems, etc. provide huge amounts of data which can be sorted and channelled through advanced information distribution and communications.

Dominating manoeuvre is also seen as a new warfare area. Manoeuvre has always been a key element in military operations, but the revolution in military affairs envisages manoeuvre on a global scale, on a much-compressed time scale, and with greatly reduced forces.

Evaluating this, the Russian proxies became the main character, with the use of the resources to complete the objetive of the Russian government and keep the legality of the conflict, even in the shadow conflicts, can mantain the legitimacy of the action, being in use on small operational scenarios with uprisings, insurgencies or local irregular forces to promote the sovereignty.

Putin's Private Army in Syria: Officially Illegal, the Kremlin Denies It, but the Evidence Is in the Numbers

The St. Petersburg-based website Fontanka reported that about 3,000 Russians under contract to the Wagner group have fought in Syria since 2015

https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/putin-s-private-army-takes-center-stage-1.5821965

A Kremlin spokesman said on Wednesday he could not rule out that there were Russian civilians in Syria, but that they had no connection to the Russian armed forces.

Associates of Russian military contractors fighting alongside government forces in Syria have said there were large-scale casualties among the contractors when U.S.-led coalition forces clashed with pro-government forces in Syria's Deir al-Zor province on Feb. 7.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking on a conference call with reporters, said he had no information about any such casualties.

Officially, private military companies are illegal in Russia. Putin himself voiced support for them before, in April 2012, Putin suggested the need for “an instrument in the pursuit of national interests without the direct participation of the state,” continuing, “I believe that it should be considered, thought over.” 

The St. Petersburg-based website Fontanka reported that about 3,000 Russians under contract to the Wagner group have fought in Syria since 2015, months before Russias two-year military campaign helped to turn the tide of the civil war in favor of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a longtime Moscow ally.

When Putin went to a Russian air base in Syria on Monday and told Russian troops that you are coming back home with victory, he did not mention the private contractors. Russian troops are expected to remain in Syria for years while the contractors are likely to stay to guard lucrative oil and gas fields under a contract between the Syrian government and another Russian company allegedly linked to a businessman known as Putins chef for his close ties to the Kremlin.

Russia has used such proxies before — in the conflict to help pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014. One Russian commander boasted of working alongside Russian troops who said they were on vacation while fighting in Ukraine.

As of December 2017, the Defense Ministry has refused to say how many of its troops are in Syria, although one estimate based on absentee ballots cast in the Russian parliamentary election last year indicated 4,300 personnel were deployed there. That number probably rose this year because Moscow sent Russian military police to patrol de-escalation zones.

The Russian people are not very enthused by the idea of an empire that would involve their boys coming home in body bags. Theres clearly a lack enthusiasm for this conflict, said Mark Galeotti, senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations in Prague.

The Russian parliament is working on a bill to regulate private military companies, a senior lawmaker said Wednesday after reports that an unknown number of Russian military contractors were killed in a U.S. strike in Syria.

Retired Gen. Vladimir Shamanov, head of the defense committee in the lower house of Russia’s parliament, said the government needs to oversee private military contractors.

“The state must be directly involved in issues related to the life and health of our citizens,” he said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Updated: What Is the Connection Between the Wagner Group and the Russian State?

https://www.polygraph.info/a/russian-mercenaries-in-syria/29057392.html

The Wagner Group, allegedly a “private military company,” attracted worldwide attention after some of its personnel in Syria were killed and wounded in a devastating air and artillery strike by the U.S. military targeting pro-Syrian government militia forces on February 7.

Mercenary forces are illegal in Russia, yet there is evidence the government established and supported Wagner’s early growth, operations in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, and their operations in Syria.

Estimates of the number of Russian citizens killed in the February 7 incident ranges from "five," to more than 200, according to Wagner personnel.

The Conflict Intelligence Team, an NGO that investigates reports of military activity in Ukraine and Syria, has confirmed the deaths of ten “contractors” -- nine Russians and one Ukrainian.

Russian officials from the Kremlin, Foreign Ministry, and Defense Ministry initially denied or downplayed the number of Russian victims. Statements have been contradictory, at times accusing the press of spreading “disinformation” and other times admitting higher casualty figures while still denying any knowledge of the Russian citizens’ activities in Syria.

?This week, (February 21) the Russian Foreign Ministry admitted there were “dead citizens of Russia and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries” and "several dozen" wounded in the clash.

“Our guys were going to commandeer an oil refinery and the Yankees were holding it,” said a paramilitary fighter in an audio recording obtained by Polyraph.info from a source close to the Kremlin and published February 16.

“So they tore us to pieces for sure, put us through hell, and the Yankees knew for sure that the Russians were coming,” the unidentified soldier said.

In recent days, some Russian state media started acknowledging higher Russian casualty figures even while reporting on official denials. In reporting, earlier, that “dozens” of “Russian and CIS citizens” had been killed in the attack, RT quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying:

“There are Russian citizens in Syria, who went there on their own will and for various purposes. It’s not up to the Foreign Ministry to judge the legality of the decisions taken by those people.”

The same article noted: “Moscow denies any direct involvement with such paramilitary troops and insists that they act as private citizens. Being a mercenary or organizing a mercenary force is a crime in Russia, although in practice only a handful of people have been prosecuted for it.”

Indeed, despite overwhelming evidence that Russian citizens crossed international borders to wage wars to advance Russian state interests in such places as Ukraine, very few have been prosecuted for mercenary activities. On the contrary, some have been lauded as heroes by the state media specifically for their mercenary service. One Russian video on Youtube calls Wagner "our heroes."

The Origin of Wagner Group

A pair of individuals who were arrested for mercenary activities, however, has an interesting connection to the Wagner Group, and its story may shed some light on the role of the Russian security services in organizing this “private military company.”

In the spring of 2013, a Hong Kong-registered “private military company” called “Slavonic Corps” went to Syria to conduct combat missions on behalf of the Assad government. The organization recruited mostly on Russian Web sites and sought to attract former members of elite Russian military units in the airborne forces, naval infantry, and special forces (spetsnaz). Officially, the Slavonic Corps had been “hired” by another Russian Hong Kong-based firm known as the Moran Security Group. Moran Security Group is a security company, specializing mainly in anti-piracy and security for high-value sites. While private security companies are legal under Russian law, private military companies are not.

The story of Wagner begins with the Slavonic Corps and its failed mission in Syria. In fact, “Wagner” was the code name of one of the group’s contractors, Dmitry Utkin, a Russian former special forces officer. When Wagner and his comrades returned to Russia, two of the “company’s” executives were arrested by the Federal Security Services (FSB), charged with mercenary activity and sentenced to jail terms.

Utkin and his new “PMC” (Private Military Company) Wagner would again appear in 2014, during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where the unit fought against Ukrainian government forces in the Donbas region. Hacked emails reveal that the FSB was closely involved in recruitment operations for this supposedly “private” outfit. But subsequent investigations by the Russian independent news outlet Fontanka revealed far more connections between Wagner and the state.

First, Wagner was allowed to use a military facility as its training base. The facility, located in Molkino in Russia’s Krasnodar region, is also home to the 10th Special Forces Brigade of the GRU (military intelligence).

The Russian news agency RBC talked to a former mercenary who spoke about his experiences with the outfit during its first deployment to Syria in 2016. According to him, the company was well supplied. Ammunition was plentiful, and the unit, organized as a “battalion tactical group” with an estimated total strength of over 2,000 men, was equipped with modern T-72 tanks, D-30 122mm howitzers, and BM-21 “Grad” multiple rocket launchers. Pay was high and always on time.

In addition to the generous supply of money and equipment, as well as the right to use a Russian military base, members of Wagner also received state medals typically awarded to members of the Russian armed forces. These individuals received state medals despite the fact that their activities appear to be illegal and Russian authorities, from the Kremlin to the Defense Ministry, have routinely denied knowledge about this group’s operations in Syria.

?In addition, some sources claim Wagner troops have been transported to and from Syria on Russian military transport aircraft, and that its food and other essential supplies come from the Russian Defense Ministry. Fighters wounded in the February 7 attack have been found in Russian military hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Under New Management?

All this would seem to cast doubt on the initial claims of the Kremlin, Foreign Ministry, and Defense Ministry that they know next to nothing about the Wagner Group and the fate of its personnel in Syria. It is possible that the outfit lost some of its state support in 2017. This is based on claims that during the group’s second deployment to Syria that same year, soldiers suddenly experienced unexplained pay cuts and salary arrears. There were also complaints about severe shortages of ammunition and that, in contrast to the modern equipment they received for their 2016 deployment, in 2017 they were furnished with out-of-date weapons.

This theory is also supported by reports of Evgeny Prigozhin’s involvement. He is the owner of a number of businesses that are linked to the Kremlin and a close associate of Vladimir Putin. The Washington Post reported February 22 that U.S. intelligence had intercepted communications between Prigozhin and a Syrian official, in which he claimed to have received permission from an unnamed Russian government minister to move forward with a “fast and strong” initiative which would take place between February 6-9. Prigozhin reportedly told the Syrian official that his initiative would be a “good surprise” for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Post report said “U.S. intelligence believes that Prigozhin also ‘almost certainly’ controls Russian mercenaries fighting in Syria,” specifically Wagner.

Prigozhin is also linked to a company called Evro-Polis, which opened an office in Damascus in 2017. According to AP and Fontanka, Evro-Polis signed a deal with Syria’s state-owned oil company whereby it would receive 25% of any oil and gas revenues produced at facilities it recaptured from the Islamic State or rebel forces. Fontanka’s report on Wagner found that it was cooperating with Evro-Polis in 2017. Survivors of the February 7 battle claimed their mission was to take control of an oil refinery. Prigozhin is also the owner of the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, better known as the “troll factory.” He was sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2016 over his business activities in Ukraine and recently he was indicted by the FBI for alleged involvement in election interference in 2016.

Plausible Deniability

Mark Galeotti, a researcher with the Institute of International Relations in Prague, has written extensively on the topic of Wagner and Russia’s use of mercenaries as a potentially deniable asset. According to him, Wagner cannot be considered a legitimate private military company.

“I tend to call Wagner a pseudo-mercenary outfit because it is somewhere in between,” Galeotti told Polygraph.info. “Given that it seems largely bankrolled through Evro Polis [a company owned by Prigozhin], and it has a contract with the Syrian government worth 25% of the output of any gas and oil fields it recovers, there is clearly some truly mercenary aspect, even if much of the time it is working for the Russian command cell in Damascus.”

But while he acknowledges a possible change in Wagner’s ownership, Galeotti agreed that the organization was undoubtedly tied to the Russian state, at least in the beginning: “I don't think there is any question they were originally a state-sponsored op, is there?”

And given the fact that wounded fighters still appear to be receiving treatment at Russian military hospitals, possibly arriving on Russian military transport aircraft, it appears that Russian authorities know far more about Wagner and its activities than they have so far admitted in public.

Online activists identify dozens of Russian Wagner mercenaries

https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/online-activists-identify-dozens-russian-wagner-mercenaries.html

The Inform Napalm, an international open-source investigating community, says it has identified dozens of Russian contractors serving with the infamous Wagner Group, a Kremlin-backed private military company currently running shady combat missions in Syria.

In two reports published on Feb. 22 and on Feb. 27, the activists identified up to 26 Wagner tankmen and more 20 artillerymen by analyzing social networks and leaked data on the Wagner’s activities in Syria.

“A share of the data was received from our insiders,” the InformNapalm activists claimed on their website on Feb. 22. “It was checked and supplemented by investigating open sources and combing through mail communications.”

In all,  personal data on 25 Wagner’s tankmen and a POL (petroleum, oil, and lubricants) service head was revealed. The following infographic shows some of the alleged Wagner mercenaries identified by  InformNapalm from social network accounts.

According to numerous independent reports on Feb. 7 Wagner Group forces and Syrian pro-regime troops were hit by U.S. forces airstrikes as they tried to advance against U.S. forces and U.S.-backed Kurdish forces deployed near an oil and gas facility west of the embattled city of Deir ez-Zor in western Syria. As many as 100 Russian mercenaries were reported killed in the attack, and another 200 were badly injured, according to Reuters, with many of those being treated at military hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The Kremlin has consistently denied that Russian regular troops were injured or killed in the incident, although it has admitted that a number of Russian nationals may have been wounded.

Later, the Pentagon released video footage of the destruction of a T-72 tank by U.S. forces during the Feb. 7 battle. The InformNapalm activists say that they have not yet determined whether the identified Wagner tankmen were involved in the deadly incident.

In a second report published on Feb. 27,  InformNapalm posted the personal data and social network photos of 20 alleged mercenaries serving with  Wagner’s artillery unit of 2S1 self-propelled guns.

“The Kremlin uses the Wagner Group as an element of Russia’s hybrid war in Ukraine, Syria, and probably in the Balkans in the short term,” the activists stated on their website. “International mercenaries are united under the guise of the Wagner Group, but the basic core of this (force) is made up of retired Russian military servicemen carefully following orders from Russian high command.”

“They are trained on the basis of Russia’s 10th Special Forces Brigade, and are given awards signed personally by (Russian President) Vladimir Putin… (In Ukraine) the range of their tasks included the elimination of field commanders of militants who demonstrated independence. They get heavy weapons and equipment directly from the storage bases of Russia’s Defense Ministry.

“From the notion of ‘regular serviceman of the Russian Federation,’ they are distinguished only by the wording of the contract and the amount of pay, as well as with the fact that it is easier for Moscow to disown them.”