Ex-Wagner Group members now considered full Russian military veterans

Some former members of Russia’s Wagner Group are receiving official documents formally identifying them as military veterans. The move appears to be the latest step in the Kremlin’s plan to fully integrate the mercenary army into the Russian military structure, British officials said Thursday.

The military documents will allow Wagner Group veterans to receive government bonuses for their service in Ukraine and other combat zones. Wagner Group forces were recently made part of the National Guard of Russia, known as Rosgvardia, an independent military unit that reports directly to President Vladimir Putin, U.K. military officials said.

“This follows a long period of uncertainty on how the administration would regard Wagner personnel in the wake of the Wagner Group’s mutiny and abortive ‘March for Justice’ in June 2023,” British intelligence officials said Thursday on social media.

The Wagner Group is a Russian state-funded private military company that was led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Mr. Putin. Although its personnel were initially used as proxies for the Russian government, giving Moscow deniability for military operations, it had a more open role during the invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

The Wagner Group lost favor with the Kremlin following the aborted mutiny in June 2023 staged by Mr. Prigozhin. 

He and nine others died in an Aug. 23 plane crash in Russia that a number of analysts have deemed suspicious.

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