Stupin tried to help the family of a Wagner mercenary who went missing in Ukraine. The PMC refused to give information, and the request to the Ministry of Defense received a response on behalf of Gerasimov himself.
“The organization you refer to as Wagner PMC is not part of the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” the document says.
In the letter, Gerasimov notes that the Ministry of Defense cannot help relatives, regardless of whether they agreed to serve or ended up in the war “in another way.”
“The above circumstances exclude the possibility of establishing, with the assistance of the RF Ministry of Defense, any contacts between the relatives of its employees and the employer (if such relations took place on a voluntary or other basis),” the General Staff wrote.
February 24 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine under the guise of some of its “demilitarization” and “denazification”.
After the start of a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, the founder of PMC “Wagner” Yevgeny Prigozhin personally engaged in the recruitment of prisonersserving sentences in Russian prisons to participate in hostilities on the side of the Russian army. Prigozhin has repeatedly publicly criticized the Russian army and generals. “Many of those who are so-called personnel [военными]have learned nothing but how to click their heels, wear tsatski and write beautiful reports, “- he said in October.
According to Reuters, as part of PMCs about 50 thousand mercenariesof which more than 1 thousand were killed near Bakhmut between the end of November and the beginning of December 2022. The total losses of the Wagnerites were, according to the report, 4,100 killed and 10,000 wounded.
In the past six months, Prigozhin has repeatedly subjected the leadership of the Russian army and the Russian military command to harsh criticism. In January 2023, ISW already noted that Prigozhin was preparing the ground for blame the failures of the invaders near Bakhmut Donetsk region is precisely the Russian military command, removing responsibility from the Wagner PMC.
