Russia’s Wagner Group has reportedly been using mercenaries from Libya and Syria, according to a transcript published by the US Defence Department on Saturday.
The transcript quotes a senior defence official saying that the Wagner Group “has been operating in the Donbas and that they have recruited from places like Syria and Libya and that they use Syrian and Libyan fighters.”
Neither the exact number of fighters nor their location has been confirmed, the official said.
The Russian government has denied any connection to the Wagner Group, which also operated in some parts of Africa and Syria.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the Russian private paramilitary company, Wagner is present in Libya and Mali on a “commercial basis.”
In an interview with Italian television Mediaset, Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s position that Wagner “has nothing to do with the Russian state.”
“We also explained that in Libya, this private military company was invited by the authorities in Tobruk, where the Parliament is located. They are present there on a commercial basis,” the Russian diplomat said.
Last week, two Western officials told the Financial Times that Moscow withdrew more than a thousand “Syrian and Russian mercenaries” that were deployed in Libya. An indication that the invasion of Ukraine is putting pressure on Moscow’s foreign military deployments.
The report stated that in recent weeks, Russia withdrew about 200 mercenaries from the special military Wagner Group, and about a thousand Syrians from Libya.
A regional official said about 5,000 mercenaries are still in Libya, and are working for Russia. A prominent Libyan official confirmed that it had “withdrawn mercenaries from his country”, without specifying their number.
Last month, Turkey closed its airspace to Russian military flights from Libya and Syria. This was amid fears of transferring fighters and equipment to Ukraine, according to Turkish and Western officials.
“Turkey had evidence that the Russians were moving personnel, and possibly equipment, (from Syria and Libya) to the battlefield in Ukraine,” the Western official said, noting that Ankara publicly announced the ban last Saturday.