The Kremlin is moving to absorb former Wagner soldiers into Russia’s military structures as it seeks to take control of battle-tested fighters for its war in Ukraine more than two months after the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary group’s founder.
Wagner halted recruitment in the chaotic months after Prigozhin’s failed march on Moscow in June as the Russian military leadership dismantled the group’s military base in the south of Russia and forced it to hand over thousands of tonnes of weaponry.
