A covert network of Russian private military contractors is operating in Ukraine amid the repercussions of the Wagner group uprising.
Although the militias are less well-known than Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenaries, they do contain battle-tested soldiers and a neo-Nazi-led organisation.
They are broadly referred to as private military contractors (PMCs), although their relationships with Russia’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) are murky.
One of the groups, Patriot, is said to have been formed as a counter-balance to Wagner under the auspices of the defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who has been the target of angry video tirades by Prigozhin.
The formation was sanctioned by the US in April 23, 2023, with the Department of the Treasury’s listing stating that the entity was established in 2018 and is engaged in ‘defence activities’.
However, Patriot may be a generic term for a number of clandestine groups and individuals working in a ‘grey zone’ outside of Russia’s conventional military framework. The group, whose logo shows a fierce dog with red eyes, is among 25 entities active in Ukraine from the outset of Moscow’s aggression in 2014 to the present, according to the Molfar OSINT agency.
Their stock is now said to be increasing in the wake of the Wagner group’s aborted mutiny last weekend, with the reach of the various formations stretching across Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa.
A more notorious outfit, Rusich, is described as a ‘sabotage and assault reconnaissance group’ by an account on the Russian social media channel VKontakte. The group’s logo incorporates a Slavic symbol with neo-Nazi connotations and it has allegedly committed war crimes in Ukraine.