Russian President Vladimir Putin has discussed the creation of volunteer units with Andrey Troshev, the former commander of the Wagner private military сompany (PMC).
“At our last meeting, we talked about the fact that you will deal with the formation of volunteer units that could perform various combat missions, primarily, of course, in the [Russian] special military operation zone,” Putin said.
The Russian president recalled that Troshev himself fought in such a unit for more than a year, and that he "knows about the problems that should be solved in advance, so that the combat work can be carried out in the most successful way.
The 61-year-old Troshev - a retired colonel and Hero of Russia - is a former chief of staff of the Wagner PMC, where he had the call sign "Sedoy" (gray-haired).
According to earlier media reports, Troshev is seen as a successor to former Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. President Putin, for his part, earlier offered soldiers to continue serving in a private military company headed by Troshev.