The Ukrainian authorities said they had disrupted three assassination attempts on President Zelenskyy in the past fortnight
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A Russian private military company, sanctioned by the West and linked to allegations of war crimes, is “almost certainly on the ground and involved in fighting in Ukraine,” defence and security analysts have told GB News.
The Wagner Group is a secretive organisation, made up of more than 5,000 mainly former members of the Russian military.
It has been reported the group may have been tasked with trying to assassinate key Ukrainian leaders, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko.
The Ukrainian authorities said they had disrupted three assassination attempts on President Zelenskyy in the past fortnight.
And the Ministry of Defence this morning confirmed they suspect conscript activity.
A tweet reads: "Russia has deployed conscript troops to Ukraine despite previous public assurances from President Putin not to do so.
"As casualties mount, President Putin will be forced to draw from across the Russian Armed Forces and other sources to replace his losses."
Last Saturday, an attempt on the Ukrainian leader’s life was thwarted after a group of Chechen assassins was reportedly killed on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Set up in 2014, as Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, the Wagner Group has been heavily involved in insurgency operations, both on the Crimean peninsula and in the eastern Ukrainian Donbas region.
The group’s mercenaries are now likely to be involved in “dubious and illegal activities” throughout Ukraine, according to analysts.
However, as Moscow does not even acknowledge their existence, “Vladimir Putin has plausible deniability” of whatever they get up to.
The founder and leader of the group Dmitry Utkin is a sinister, shaven headed former Lieutenant Colonel in Russia’s Spetsnaz special forces.
The Wagner company name is reportedly derived from his Spetsnaz code-name, which it is claimed reflects his appreciation of the Third Reich and Hitler’s favourite composer.
Under Russian law, private military companies are illegal.
But Will Geddes, CEO of International Corporate Protection Group, which works widely across Eastern Europe and the Middle East, said several private military companies (PMCs) operate out of Russia.
The Wagner Group, he said, was by far the biggest.
“To call them a company would be a stretch, as there are no visible traces of this company existing.” He added.
“However it has been deemed as an asset of plausible deniability by the Kremlin to be used for various different types of conflicts around the World.
“They’ve been active not only in Central Africa, Venezuela and Syria, but also other parts of the World where it may not be pragmatic for the Russian government to utilise their own state troops.”
It was during deployments to Syria and Central Africa several years ago, that Wagner Group merceneries were linked to allegations of war crimes, including torture, rape and murder.
Several of the group’s members were claimed to be behind a gruesome video out of Syria, shared on social media in 2019.
It showed an apparent deserter from the Syrian army being tortured to death and beheaded by a group of men speaking Russian and wearing military fatigues.
The wider group is now reported to be under the ownership of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former criminal and billionaire restaurant owner, nicknamed Putin’s Chef.
Prigozhin is one of a number of Russian elites now faced with Western sanctions.
Last December, the European Union also sanctioned the group, along with several companies and individuals connected to it, for what the EU called “serious human rights abuses.”
Many Western nations also employ the services of private military contractors, groups like the U.S. company Blackwater, which was renamed Academi in 2011.
Some of their employees were convicted and later pardoned after the killing of a number of Iraqi civilians in 2007.
But Western contractors are at least regulated and there is official oversight of their activities, unlike their Russian counterparts, according to retired Major General Tim Cross.
“We've used private security companies to guard diplomats, we used them in Iraq, but mostly for non military operations.” He said.
“The ones we're talking about here, that doesn't apply to. They’re a different breed if you like and they're operating under different conditions.
“Whether they're accountable to the local military commanders on the ground or whether they're working back to some organisation in Moscow or elsewhere, I honestly don't know.
“But the reality is that they are in no way accountable, in the same way that we in the West make our private companies accountable.”
Will Geddes said he believed that a group of Wagner mercenaries, operating in and around Kyiv, have been placed on a mission to take out Ukraine’s leadership.
“From what we understand in Ukraine right now, there is a kill team that are undertaking potential assassinations against key persons including obviously Zelenskyy, individuals who are very vocal in the charge for both morale for the Ukrainian people but also for the international community.”
Whether their mission actually includes a leadership assassination command, defence and security analysts have told GB News that Wagner Group mercenaries will certainly be “involved in sabotage, false flag operations, and the likely interrogation and torture of captured Ukrainians - the kind of dirty jobs Vladimir Putin might want to publicly distance himself from."
