The Russian private military company Wagner, which is involved in a full-scale war in Ukraine, unsuccessfully asked China for weapons at the beginning of the year.
As reported by “European truth” with reference to Financial Timesthis is evidenced by secret documents of the US Department of Defense, which got into the network.
According to a released Pentagon document, representatives of the Wagner PMC, which is controlled by a close associate of Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, were “searching for ammunition and equipment” in China “in early 2023.”
But as of early January, China “did not send (Wagner PMC – ed.) any weapons, even for testing, and had no contacts with (Wagner PMC – ed.) for the supply of weapons,” the same document.
According to the FT, the Wagnerites’ appeal to China indicates that they were at least partially confident in Beijing’s openness to providing Russia with weapons.
The Pentagon’s “leaks” also mention successful examples of the acquisition of weapons by PMC “Wagner” from other allies of Moscow – Belarus and Syria.
According to one of the documents, at the beginning of January Belarus “already delivered 50% of the promised weapons” and offered to send 300,000 shells for the VOG-17 grenade launchers to the Wagnerites. The militants also acquired six SPG-9 grenade launchers and 180 grenades from Syria at an unspecified time.
And in Turkey, Wagner PMC tried to negotiate the purchase of drones, electronic warfare systems, counter-battery systems and howitzer artillery installations, but was refused.
PMC “Wagner” appeared in 2014 and was active in a number of countries where Russia has important interests – in particular, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and Ukraine. There they committed, among other things, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
After the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the “Wagnerites” participated in the massacres of civilians. PMCs are now recruiting prisoners from Russian prisons.
At the end of last year the White House showed photos of American intelligenceon which Russian railway cars enter North Korea, pick up a cargo of infantry rockets and missiles and return to Russia – probably commissioned by the Wagner PMC.
