Wagner PMC currently not fighting at front - Maliar

The Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Hanna Maliar, reported that the mercenaries of the Wagner PMC are currently not fighting at the front, and the uprising of their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, did not affect the situation in any way.

She said this on the air of the telethon.

“Wagner is really not fighting at the moment. And indeed, not only airborne assault troops and professionals have been deployed, but also those units, as they say, "are not used to this war," Maliar said.

In addition, she noted that, as of the moment, the uprising of the leader of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was not reflected in the situation at the front in any way.

"But it must be said that the military, when they plan their offensive and defensive actions, they take into account the fact that political instability has begun in Russia, and that they already have competition between different clans. And the special services compete with each other, and private military companies actually with the state," the Deputy Minister of Defense stressed.

She added: "And those offensives, let's say the one that is currently being carried out in the Bakhmut direction, it began on the same day, by the way. But our offensive was planned and prepared in advance. That is, it does not mean that the events directly provoked this offensive, but these events were taken into account during planning."

Also, Maliar emphasized that there is no need to "nurture any illusions" about the aggressor state and not to think that "they have limits" or that "EU borders can restrain them." According to her, it should be taken into account that the Russians "may move towards the European Union if they are not stopped here."

"And taking into account the fact that they still have PMCs getting out of control, anything can happen," she said.

Maliar drew attention to the fact that Russia's undermining of the Kakhovka HEPP or the risk of a terrorist attack by an aggressor at the Zaporizhzhia NPP is in fact the creation of ecocide, which changes the ecosystem not only of Ukraine.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that the relocation of the Wagner group to Belarus is a very negative signal for his country.

Meanwhile, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, does not believe that the transfer of Wagner PMC mercenaries to the Republic of Belarus could seriously threaten Ukraine.

Earlier, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported that neither the appearance of Wagner mercenaries nor the construction of bases for them had been recorded on the territory of Belarus.

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