The head of the press service of the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Ilya Yevlash confirmed in a comment to Rbc-Ukraine that fighters from the Wagner militia have returned to the east of the Russian-occupied country. «On the territory of the Group of Eastern Forces there are fighters from the Wagner militia. We are talking about about 500 people, part of the formation of about 8 thousand mercenaries who were in the camps in Belarus, and who are now negotiating contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense”, after the failed uprising of Yevgeny Prigozhin last June 24th.
Yevlash, in his statement, emphasized that the mercenaries of the Wagner group now do not represent a turning point for the Russians in the fighting: «They will not pose a significant threat, as before, since their leader, Prigozhin, is no more. These people are indeed among the most trained soldiers in the Russian army, but they will not become a significant threat, a game changer,” he concluded.