Putin offers new leader to Wagner mercenaries

During a meeting with mercenaries of the Wagner PMC, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered them to fight under a new commander.

Putin said this during an interview with the propaganda newspaper Kommersant, CNN reports.

The Russian president said that among the many options he offered at the meeting with the Wagnerites, one included that the mercenaries would continue to fight under a new commander.

This commander is Andrei Troshev, a retired colonel and one of the founders and executive director of the Wagner Group.

Troshev took part in the wars in Chechnya and Afghanistan and commanded a rapid response unit of the Southwestern Federal District of the Russian Interior Ministry.

As CNN journalists found out, in December 2021, the EU imposed sanctions on Troshev because he was directly involved in the military operations of the Wagner PMC in Syria. In particular, he was involved in military operations in the Deir ez-Zor region.

Ukraine imposed sanctions against Andrei Trochev on February 26, 2023.