Putin appoints Wagner Group aide to train Russian volunteers
A former aide to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group mercenary leader who was killed in a mysterious plane crash last month, is poised to take over the training of Russian volunteer troops in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Friday.
Andrei Troshev, a retired colonel from St. Petersburg known by his nom de guerre “Sedoi” (“grey-haired’), is a veteran of the mercenary group’s wars in Chechnya, Syria, and Afghanistan.
He was sanctioned by the European Union for fighting in Syria in 2021.
In June, Prigozhin led a short-lived armed rebellion against Russia’s high-military command after Kremlin Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, had ordered “volunteer detachments” to sign contracts with the military.
Prigozhin called off the rebellion after striking a deal with the Kremlin with the help of Belarus.
He faced no criminal charges but was purportedly exiled to Belarus before his plane went down in a fiery crash on a flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg in August.
U.S. officials called his death an assassination.
Although Troshev, a decorated Russian soldier, retired from Russian forces in 2012, he joined the Wagner Group as its chief of staff, managing logistics during the Syrian war.
He was included in EU sanctions lists for supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and for training and directing Syrian forces.
