(Washington) Between “10 to 20,000” mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary company Wagner or Syrian and Libyan fighters are currently fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, a European official said on Tuesday.
Posted at 3:11 p.m.
These men “have no vehicles or heavy weapons” and come to reinforce the Russian troops, the official told reporters in Washington, on condition of anonymity.
The official says he has seen “transfers, from areas such as Syria and Libya, to the eastern region of Donbass”, where Moscow has launched a new phase of its attack.
However, according to him, it is difficult to estimate exactly how many of these “10 to 20,000” men are from the private Wagner group, and how many are fighters from Libya or Syria.
At the end of March, the British Ministry of Defense had indicated that “more than 1000 mercenaries” of the Wagner company, including officials of the organization, were to be deployed in eastern Ukraine to “conduct combat operations”. .
Reputed to be close to Vladimir Putin, the Wagner group and its paramilitaries are suspected of abuses in Mali, Libya and even Syria.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia began a major offensive in this area on Monday, a new strategic objective for Russian forces, after their withdrawal from the Kyiv region. Part of this Ukrainian territory has already been in the hands of pro-Russian separatist forces since 2014.
By leading this new offensive, Russian troops will probably control within “four to six months” the Luhansk region, part of the Donbass and a small land bridge in the Zaporizhia region, estimated the European official in Washington.
He said he expected “total destruction” of the city of Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, besieged since early March by Russian troops. “My fear is that it will be even worse than Boutcha”, a Ukrainian city where the Russian army is accused of having massacred civilians, he underlined.
The official finally predicted a possible end to the negotiations between Russians and Ukrainians in “autumn 2022”, which would make it possible to find a solution to the conflict before winter.