The paramilitary Wagner Group has long been suspected of acting as the Kremlin's right-hand man in violent conflicts. Now she is planning to build a "fortification system" to support the Russian army in its battles against the Ukrainian troops in Luhansk.
According to the Wagner mercenary group, they are working on a fortified defense line in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk. "A fortification will be built along the line of contact," said the group's founder, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is close to the Kremlin, on the online channels of his company Concord. It is a "multi-tiered and layered defense," he added, without giving details.
Prigozhin boasted that the fortifications weren't actually necessary because "the presence of a Wagner unit at the front" was already an "insurmountable wall".
In late September, Prigozhin admitted to founding the Wagner group in 2014 to fight in Ukraine. He also acknowledged the presence of the mercenary group in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
For years, the paramilitary Wagner group has been suspected of working in secret for the Kremlin at various conflict sites. Moscow has always denied this and has denied any connection with paramilitary groups. The Wagner troops themselves made headlines, for example, because they recruited more prisoners for the Ukraine war in Russian prison camps. Prigozhin is said to have personally campaigned for recruits in a camp.
Prigozhin himself was for a time one of the suppliers of the Kremlin's kitchens, earning him the nickname "Putin's Chef". He entertained high state guests and the President and also became a kind of commissary for the Russian army. He was also the head of a notorious troll factory in Russia.
In Soviet times he himself was in prison for years for robbery, fraud and prostitution of minors. The European Union and the USA have imposed sanctions on him. The 61-year-old is accused of being behind a "troll factory" that tried to manipulate the 2016 US presidential election.
