Wagner's chief rejects contract, will fight in Ukraine

General Colonel Andrey Kargopolov, an influential lawmaker who heads the Russian Parliament's lower-room defence committee, said the trigger for Saturday's uprising was the Pigozin dispute with a request from the defence ministry for his mercenary group to sign contracts.

“Sic knows, a few days before the uprising attempt, the defence ministry said all formations carrying out combat duties should sign contracts with the defence ministry”, Kartopolov said.

Everyone started to follow this decision... all except Mr. Pgox1>, he said.

Prigozhin said on June 11th that his fighters would not sign any contracts with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, adding that he was unable to manage military units, Reuters reports.

Kartpolov said that after Pigozin's refusal to sign the contracts, he was told that his mercenaries will no longer fight in Ukraine and thus will not receive money from the state.

As a result, the lawmaker said Prigozhin committed treason due to excessive “ambition”, money and what he called “enthusiasm state”.

Last week, the private group of mercenaries, Wagner, rebelled and was initially told that he started a march of his troops towards Moscow.

Prygozhin, said the goal of his troop march towards Moscow was to save his company and not an attempt to bring down the Russian government.

The retreat took place after President Belarus's intervention, Alyaxander Lucashenka.

According to the Kremlin, Prigozy has found refuge in nearby Belarus.

What is Wagner?

The Wagner group officially known as PMC Wagner is a private army.

It has been identified for the first time in 2014, when it has been supporting the pro-Russian separatist forces east of Ukraine.

At the time, the group was a secret, and it acted mainly in Africa and the Middle East, and it is believed that there were only 5,000 warriors in that world, mainly veterans of Russia's elite regiments and special forces.

Since then, the group has grown considerably.

“Wagner probably commands 50,000 fighters in Ukraine now and has become the key factor in war”, the British Defence Ministry said in January of this year.

Wagner fights alongside the Russian regular army in the fight against Ukraine.

The group has been very involved in the capture of the town of Bahmut, located east of Ukraine.

Ukrainian troops have said that large numbers of fighters have been sent to fight in open environments and that many have been killed as a result. / REL/