Wagner PMC “in accordance with the plan” transferred to the Russian Defense Ministry more than 2 thousand units of equipment and weapons, the military department reported.
The army received, among others, T-90, T-80, T-72B3 tanks, Grad and Uragan multiple rocket launchers, Pantsir SAM systems, self-propelled artillery systems, armored personnel carriers and other weapons. Of these, “dozens of units have never been used in combat conditions”, the ministry claims. In addition, the PMC transferred to the armed forces more than 2.5 thousand tons of various ammunition and about 20 thousand small arms.
All equipment and weapons are delivered to the rear areas, the ministry said.
“Heavy tracked vehicles, high-power self-propelled artillery units and tanks are being brought to field bases by wheeled tractors on trawls”, said Igor Konashenkov, head of the Defense Ministry’s information and mass communications department.
Earlier, the Kremlin reported that the head of PMC Wagner, which launched a military mutiny on June 23, met with Vladimir Putin a few days after the incident. According to the head of state’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, Putin himself “invited” the businessman and his mercenaries – 35 commanders of PMC units – to the Kremlin five days after the armed rebellion, on June 29.
Details of the meeting are unknown. Peskov noted that the president “gave his assessment of the company’s actions during the SVO” and “the events of June 24”, and offered the mercenaries “options for employment” and “further combat use”.
“The commanders themselves outlined their version of what happened and emphasized that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the supreme commander-in-chief. They also said that they were ready to continue fighting for the motherland”, the presidential spokesman added.
Earlier it was reported that Prigozhin on July 5 personally arrived at the FSB department for St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, where he was returned the weapons seized during searches on the day of the mutiny. The day before, he was given the confiscated 10 billion rubles, “hundreds of thousands of dollars” and five bars of gold.
