According to reports issued by the Pentagon and Western intelligence services, Russia has deployed in Ukraine about a thousand fighters of the mercenaries of the "WAGNER" company, whom it had previously used in Libya and in its bloody intervention in Syria, according to what was published by the American "Time" magazine.
An article in the magazine by the former US Army officer, Frederick Wehrey, indicated that US officials said that President Vladimir Putin resorted to the use of mercenaries with the faltering of the Russian regular forces in Ukraine and the increase in the number of dead in their ranks, in addition to the atrocities they committed and became the center of the media.
They reported that about a thousand Wagner fighters entered Ukraine in late March.
The writer - who works as a senior fellow in the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - said that he was in Libya in the fall of 2019 when Russia deployed 1,000 Wagner fighters there to support the warlord, retired Libyan Major General Khalifa Haftar in his attempt to overthrow the legitimate Libyan government.
He explained that Wagner - a private military company that is considered the secret military arm of Russian President Vladimir Putin - terrified the Libyans and weakened the morale of the Libyan government forces due to the intensity of their fire and the accuracy of their snipers in hitting their targets, and he said that one of the Libyan leaders in the government army told him that 30% of the deaths in his unit were at the hands of Russian snipers.
"I witnessed fear and panic in the ranks not seen in previous conflicts in Libya, including the months-long battles against the Islamic State. Libyan civilians suffered under the Wagner attack, and entire families perished under the rubble of homes destroyed by Russian bombing." .
Weri criticized the positions of Western countries about what Wagner mercenaries committed in Libya at the time, and said that what happened was not met with little objection by Western capitals, and that what is worse is that two allies of the United States, including France, supported the Russian-led attack on the Libyan capital, Tripoli, with the support of Diplomatic and military.
He said that it seems that Russia is repeating its experience in Libya on Ukrainian soil. After its failure to displace the Ukrainian regime and control the country, Moscow is moving to divide the country and turn the conflict in Ukraine into a dead end that hinders Kyiv's economic and democratic progress and its accession to NATO.