Russia may withdraw some troops from the Kharkiv region: ISW explains the reason
Date: 2024-07-30 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: WAR
Russian militants from the "Wagner" group in Mali recently suffered colossal losses, and now the Kremlin will demand a large-scale replacement of soldiers in Africa with servicemen of the African Corps of the Russian Defense Ministry. Part of this corps was recently transferred to the Kharkiv region to support the enemy's offensive.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, several critical Russian mibloggers claim that the Defense Ministry is gloating over the losses of militants. There is a possibility that the military leadership will use this to stop the deployment of "Wagnerites" in the Sahel and completely replace them with the African Corps of the Ministry of Defense.
In their statements, the bloggers cited an unnamed source in the Putin administration, who confirmed such changes. Moreover, the military will be sent to replace the militants in the entire "Sahel trinity" (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger).
According to analysts, the Afrika Korps probably lacks the current capabilities to properly replace the Wagner Group, particularly in Mali. This may be because some of the corps has been redeployed to the Kharkiv region, and therefore may be withdrawn from Ukraine.
"A large-scale replacement of Wagner after losses such as those in the recent ambush would likely result in the redeployment of some Afrika Korps fighters in Mali away from the front lines in Ukraine, and the Russian military command probably does not view a full replacement of Wagner in Mali or elsewhere in the Sahel as a priority at this time," the ISW report states.
