-
Russia has deployed African Corps units to support its offensive in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, UK Intel says.
-
The Afrika Korps, established in December 2023, includes former Wagner Group mercenaries.
-
Russia is currently advancing on two fronts, in eastern Ukraine and in the northern Kharkiv region.
Russian units from the Ministry of Defence’s Africa Corps are now fighting in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, according to the latest update from Britain’s Defense Intelligence Agency.
Moscow “has deployed units of the Russian Defense African Defense Corps alongside regular Russian forces and Storm-Z units during their offensive on Vovchansk, northern Khrakiv.” The British Ministry of Defense said on X.
The Afrika Korps, founded in December 2023, consists of more than 2,000 regular soldiers and officers. The force also includes “experienced mercenaries, many of whom previously served in the Wagner Group,” the tweet said.
After the death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin Last year, a plane crash, which many believe was ordered by the Kremlin, left the Wagner Group “marginalized” and “de facto” subordinated to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“The fighters will do as they are told,” Sergey Sukhankin, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, previously told Business Insider.
The Russian Ministry of Defense created the Afrika Korps in an attempt to gain greater control over the group’s remaining fighters.
The military formation has been actively recruiting former mercenaries and soldiers of the Wagner Group who fought in Ukraine for combat operations in Africa.
In a Telegram message in Februaryit promised an unspecified “high monetary” allowance, foreign currency payments, service under “competent commanders” with extensive combat experience, and medical care and social benefits.
“Wagner fighters likely have little loyalty to the company itself after Prigozhin’s demise and would be willing to fight for whatever Kremlin-backed organization exists in Africa,” Raphael Parens, a fellow at the Foreign Office’s Eurasia Program, told reporters. Policy Research Institute, previously at BI.
“These mercenaries care about the end result and not about ideological alignment with Prigozhin,” he said.
The appearance of the Afrika Korps in Ukraine is a clear sign that Russia is both consolidating its control over the remnants of the Wagner Group and “strengthening its war against Ukraine with resources previously allocated to Africa,” the British intelligence report said.
Russia “almost certainly” moved detachments of its Afrika Korps to the Ukrainian border in April 2024 in preparation for its offensive in Kharkov.
Despite earlier reports claiming that Moscow was hoping to capture Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Putin said last week that Russia only planned to create a buffer zone to protect the Russian border city of Belgorod.
Read the original article on Business Insider
